Welcome Home Sister Jensen!!!!!!!

Sister Camri Jensen returned home from her mission to Yakima, Washington on January 15th, 2019! 

Video to come. 

Week 74 - ONE WEEK

Hey everyone! 

Monday night was so much fun! Sister Going and I had to stay inside because of New Years Eve so we did a spa night and watched some church movies! Oh and we tried out our crock-pot for the first time, i'm pretty proud of the chefs we have become this last week :')

On Tuesday we went to see someone we're teaching named Ashley.  And her brother, John, was there.  We had never met John before.  He sat in on the lesson as we read the Book of Mormon and was way into it! He said hes been going through some hard things lately and is looking for something more in his life.  Hes going to be at our next lesson this week!

On Thursday we were going to help Sister Jarman clean out her pig pens but then we ended up weeding her garden instead.  We were pretty sad actually because we wanted the experience of cleaning a pig pen hahah.  She had a mama pig that was going to have babies and we were going to go out and help deliver them! Wouldn't that have been awesome?! I was so excited! But then she had them at like 3 am soooo that was a bummer :(

Oh! We had the first week of Come, Follow Me and the new schedule for church.  I loved it! Testimony meeting felt like it went by speedy quick.  I love the direction that the church is going.  

Remember that one guy with the crazy house made out of apple crates and underground tunnels with food storage? Well we're going to his house again today with our zone for p-day! So sorry this is short but I gotta get going! 

Also... I'm sure most of you are aware.  But I will be coming home in ONE WEEK! I'm so excited to see all of you :) LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Jensen

For our spa night, I put a chair in the tub so that we could both put our feet in the deep end haha.  Heres a selfie with our crock pot as well.  Oh and we didn't stay up until midnight, but we did set an alarm that woke us up at 11:57 so we could have a drink of apple juice and celebrate for a minute haha! I was holding up my phone to show the time but you can't see it :(

We helped someone move this week so the pic with the Elders is of him pushing us on the little moving wagon thing.  

The lady I took a pic with is Sister Eckhart.  She came to the Book of Mormon study class this week and brought her two little yorkies with her, I thought it was pretty hilarious! 

And we saw Molly again yesterday so here is a selfie with her :)

And the group pic is out at the Jarmans after we helped in the garden, we were having Hot Chocolate :)

Week 73 - 2019 Coming Real Soon

On Monday night we went and caroled at an old folks home.  They were all eating their Christmas dinner and we didn't have a piano so we sang accapella.  It was a tad awkward... But that word just kind of defines missionary life haha.  It was fun!

Christmas was great!! Christmas morning we went over to the Robinson's and they made us crepes.  Then we drove over to Selah to see our zone.  We watched the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".  Sister Going and I just kind of crocheted the whole time haha. After we got back from Selah we went and skyped our families at the Burnhams house.  Talking with my family was the highlight of my day! It was so fun.  I'm excited to see them soon :) Then we had dinner with the Parkers and played games all night with their family.  And it didn't even snow!! I was fine with it, but I'm sure there were plenty of people hoping for a white christmas.

Big news in the mission world! so the area presidency over this mission and surrounding missions decided to change our meals with members.  We will no longer be having dinner with the members except for Saturday and Sunday.  We will be having dinner on our own in our apartments from the hours of 4-5 and then using the hours from 5-7 for finding.  Its "prime Proselyting" time.  Then they want us to visit members and share a lesson with them from 8-9.  We got crockpots so sister Going and I are going to try it out today! Lol the Elders already tried theirs... they made a giant chocolate chip cookie in it.  So I guess its going good so far 

ALSO! Sister missionaries can now wear pants! Say what?! I think its freaking awesome! I just wish it would have been sooner in my mission haha.  Sister Going got extra money in her missionary account this month and we're pretty sure they gave all sisters extra money so they could buy some pants.  Sister Going isn't all that excited to wear pants but she bought some today! 

So we haven't seen Molly in soooo long but she texted us last week and said she wanted to have a lesson!! So we went down to Cle Elum yesterday to see her and guess what... when we walked in her mom asked if she could sit in on the lesson! It was so cool!! We're going back next week to have another lesson with both of them :) Hopefully Molly's mom will feel the spirit and open up to the idea of Molly getting baptized.  I think that is secretly Molly's plan with her mom sitting in on the lessons haha.  She said, "if you have any questions mom, feel free to ask.  If you have questions about baptism, or anything, just ask".  Shes the best! I freaking love Molly! She told us that Joseph Smith's birthday was the other day, she had it marked on her calendar.  Her and her friend celebrated it! 

This week we have been sharing a message with members about the New Year coming.  There is a cute video on LDS.org! It talks about Lot's wife and how she became a pillar of salt when she looked back.  The message is to move forward and not dwell on the past! With this New Year coming, we all have a chance to start fresh and become better, more dedicated, disciples of Jesus Christ.  So as you're all making those New Years resolutions, remember that dwelling in the past won't help with our progression.  Genesis 19:17 "Look not behind thee"

I love you all! Happy New Year! Stay safe.  God Bless 

Love, Sister Jensen

Mike came and played the guitar when we caroled.  The pic with crepes was christmas morning.  oh Mike gave the Jackmans some of his artwork for Christmas so I took a pic of them with it! Someone made me this little figurine and I think its so cute haha.  Some members took my phone and took a selfie, its the Hahns they are awesome! These 3 boys are cousins with Taylor Degroff (Stanley now)! What a small world! Oh and Josilyn came and visited last pday and got in on our districts nerf war! It was so good to see her :)

Week 72 - Happy Holidays

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Wow this year went by so so fast! I can't believe its already Christmas... I remember skyping my family last year on Christmas and thinking "wow.  A year from now, I'm still going to be a missionary skyping my family".  And it felt forever away! But now, here we are. 

We had a Christmas miracle over the weekend! So we had exchanges with our STL's, and I went to Yakima for the day.  But while I was gone, Sister Going met a lady named Sarah that let them right in and asked them to share more with her about what we believe.  She goes to a church but says she doesn't feel like she has found the "right one" yet.  They taught her about the Restoration and set up a time to see her this coming week. And guess what? She came to church yesterday! She really liked the Christmas program.  Even though we were in the back and the screaming kids were really loud... we still could feel that spirit!

For Light the World this week we helped some members of the ward do a free Hot Chocolate stand! It was so fun! The two little boys we did it with kept yelling at people across the street asking if they wanted free Hot Chocolate hahah.  They were pretty cute though so it worked for them!

I don't know if yall have ever seen Kid History? Well our Elders had the idea of making one with the kids in Ellensburg telling us the Nativity story for #LightYourFaith week.  So we've been filming little kids telling us the story of Jesus' birth and I've been so impressed with how much they know! Stay tuned to see the full video coming soon ;)  I don't know if you remember last year when I did a nativity picture and my sisters made me dress up as Joseph? Well don't worry, I get to be Mary this year!

I hope you all have a good Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior! Its such a wonderful time of year :)

Love, Sister Jensen

Here's some pics.  (Pics not working now, but I will get them on the blog when they start working :D ) The one with Sister Shinkle was a few weeks ago.  I might have told you about the dinner we had with these people.  Hahah they were so funny!! They were laughing so hard that Nona (the lady in the back by Sister Shinkle) had to tell the man to stop making jokes because she was about to have an accident! I haven't laughed so hard in a while.  Shes around 80 years old.

President and Sister Jackman came to our district meeting the other day to deliver some christmas packages! They are the best.

For light the world we "heart-attacked" peoples doors!

And a selfie of Sister Karren and I at lunch on exchanges :)

Week 71 - "Hey should we have the Elders clean the bathroom?"

WOAH ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS! 

We had our annual mission Christmas gathering on Saturday! I got to see a lot of my buddies.  Oh! And we got to watch the movie Co-Co, it was so cute! Lol a bunch of the missionaries were crying it was pretty funny.  I had to give my departing testimony so that was sad.  Right after the party with the missionaries, we went to our ward Christmas party! They had A LOT of leftover food and for some reason Bishop always decides that the missionaries need to take it home. So he filled up our trunk with all of the leftovers and told us to deliver some to the Elders too.  WELL! After the party we had a little bit of time before we had to go home so we decided to stop by a family we had been trying to meet.  When we got there, they let us right in.  And the mom asked us if we had gone to the ward christmas party.  We said, "yeah we did! We have a ton of extra food in the car, do you want some?" And turns out, they were in need of food.  So we gave them a whole bunch! It was pretty cool to see that God knew that they were in need of and we were able to help them out just by listening to a prompting to go see them.  

On Tuesday we went and did service for a lady named Betsy! The Elders came too and did a lot of outside work while we started cleaning the house on the inside.  The Elders finished before we did and we still had to clean the bathroom so I said, "hey Betsy, should we have the Elders start on the bathroom?" hahah the Elders weren't very happy with me but they did a good job! Betsy was very grateful :)

On Wednesday night we were driving out to a members house for dinner and we hit something on the road.  We didn't even see it so it was super strange! But then our tire pressure light came on and by the time we got to dinner we had a super flat tire... so we had to put on the spare.  The hole was so big that the tire wasn't repairable! Pretty impressive.  So that was an adventure and a half.  

Well I gotta go! Mike is teaching us how to play the guitar today.  I love you guys!

Love, Sister Jensen

Heres some pics from the week! 

Week 70 - Oh the weather outside is frightful but the mission is so delightful

What a week! 

The beginning of the week was a lot of goodbyes for Sister Shinkle.  We also helped a couple elderly ladies decorate their christmas trees! And Sister Shinkle ate Arby's for the FIRST time in her life! Lol.  

On Wednesday Mike made a steak dinner for us and the Elders before they all took off to their new areas.  It was really nice of him! After I dropped Sister Shinkle off I had to have a member come get me so that I would have a companion for a few hours while I waited for Sister Going to arrive.  I hung out with Sister Jarman and her little kids playing with kinetic sand haha it was pretty fun.  Sister Going is great! She is from Hillsboro, Oregon so not too far away.  She has been on her mission for 10 months.   

On Saturday we had a member from the Cle Elum branch text us and ask us if we wanted to go to their branch Christmas party! We don't cover Cle Elum and its too far for us to drive. But that is where Molly is and she said Molly would be there with her whole family!! So we decided it would be a good thing to go to.  The member picked us up.  I haven't seen Molly in a couple of weeks, it was so good to see her and meet the rest of her fam.  Unfortunately, she had an allergic reaction at the party and had to leave early.. shes okay now though! While we were at the party we sat with some people that we found out weren't members of the church.  they were really funny! They gave us their address and phone number afterwards and told us that we could come see them again! SWEEEET! Totally worth going to Cle Elum that night.

Yesterday was a really good day as well! Mike received the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He was only baptized in August so this is pretty quick! He was soooo excited! He even came in a new suit and an ironed white shirt, AND church shoes! He's usually a socks and sandals kind of guy but he wanted me to know that he wore shoes especially for the occasion.  He blessed the Sacrament for the first time too and received his Patriarchal Blessing last night.  We had a lesson with him afterwards and he shared his testimony with us about how strongly he feels about the gospel.  It brought him to tears and the spirit in his home was so strong!

Oh yeah, it snowed over the weeked! I was really crossing my fingers that it wouldn't happen until Christmas... but its alright, it looks pretty outside.  

Also yesterday! We found someone new to teach.  her name is Ashley.  I've actually met her before.  We went over to share Light the World with her and invite her to come to church on the 23rd.  She said she would love to come! And even invited us back to teach her more.  She said shes not going to join our church but wants to learn more about it.... that's what they all say.  lol.  But we'll take it! We also met a few people while we were tracting that told us we could come back! We didn't run into anyone mean yesterday! Pretty successful if I do say so myself :')

Don't forget to keep Lighting the World! This week for Light the World we helped people set up christmas decorations, ironed Mikes shirts, (Shout-out to papa darrell for teaching me how to iron his dress shirts.) and we took flowers to our mission nurse.  We  tried to do a free hot chocolate stand but none of the grocery stores would let us :( Maybe next week haha.  

Also.  In my studies this week I came across this verse that I really like, Mosiah 2:22 "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

The gospel is truly so simple! All that is required of us is to keep the commandments of God and stay on the covenant path. Which the world can make hard sometimes.  But as we live the commandments, we are blessed!!  

Oh yeah... I started My Plan this week... so that was weird.  

LOVE YOU!!!!  

-Sister Jensen 

Sister Going has a sweater with two head holes and two sleeves so we wore it together at the Christmas party! We made a gingerbread house the first night that Sister Going got here with a member at dinner.  Theres some pics of Mike and I doing his "fantastic!" pose.  And then me hugging Sister Shinkle goodbye :(

And the pyramid is the Walker family and the other fam is the Adams family.  They are both in 1st ward so luckily I still get to see them :')

Our zone had a nerf war a couple weeks ago so heres a couple pics from that as well :) Oh and cute little Sister Fields when we helped her with her christmas tree.ddarr