Week 64 - Hi I'm Sister Shinkle

Happy Halloween everyone! 

We had a ward Halloween Party on Saturday and Sister Shinkle and I forgot to plan a costume so right before we walked in, we switched name-tags and went as each other! Only the people that actually knew our names caught one haha we thought it was clever.

I feel like we raked a lot of leaves this week! Its that time of year I guess.  We also did some service with the college students on Saturday.  None of them knew who we were and they weren't members, so when we did an "ice-breaker" game to introduce ourselves, they were pretty confused as to why I introduced myself as "Sister Jensen".  We hung out with a girl named Taylor the whole time and she was so sweet! She even added us on Facebook.  I asked her if she had ever heard of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she said no... so then I said, well sometimes people nickname us as the Mormons.  And she said ohhhh yeah I have heard of that church! Her mom played church ball once lol.  But she had no idea what our church is actually called!! A lot of people haven't connected it actually so it just shows even more how true the Prophets words were in conference a few weeks ago.

Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience! De'Aaron had his 16th birthday so he was ordained to the office of a Priest.  One of the other Priests was the one to ordain him and that was just so so cool!! De'Aarons mom and his little brother both came to church halfway through sacrament so they could be there.  Abril thought she had missed the ordination, but it didn't happen until 3rd hour.  So we said, hey come to class until it happens! So we had her and some members come to gospel principles and we ended up teaching her the first missionary lesson, The Restoration.  And the four members were able to all bear their testimonies and it was SO COOL!! Abril loved it and kept saying things like "oh my goodness!" and "Wow!!"   And we set up an appointment for tonight to go see her whole family! 

We got to see Molly again last night! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and it went really well.  But! Lemme tell you a story.  So on Friday we were planning and talking about what to teach Molly.  I had the thought that we should teach her about tithing, but I just sort of ignored it because we had only taught her the first two lessons pretty much.  Then yesterday during companion study we were talking about her lesson and again in my head I had the thought, "maybe we should teach her about tithing".  But usually tithing is one of the later things we teach and I didn't know why Molly would need that lesson right now.  Soooo we get through with the word of wisdom lesson and Molly says, "I have a question.... about tithing".  Immediately I knew that I had ignored a prompting from the Holy Ghost! Molly had a bunch of questions about tithing of all things! We were able to answer her questions of course and we're going to teach her the tithing lesson next time.  It was a big testimony builder for me that Heavenly Father knows all of his children perfectly and individually.  He knows what we need, and when we need it.  God is SO real! 

Be safe this week! And make sure to take lots of candy from strangers ;) Halloween is seriously so weird haha.

Love, Sister Jensen

Heres pics from the Halloween party! I got a spider painted on my face.  Also some pics from the service on Saturday and lots of pics from raking leaves.  Oh and Mike gives us cakes that he buys at the store sometimes haha so thats him.  

Week 63 - I'm an American that makes people strong so they can fly on airplanes

So many great things happened this week!! For starters, transfer calls were this week and we found out that Sister Shinkle and I will both be staying in Ellensburg for another 6 weeks together! WAHOOOO!!
On Tuesday we got to go on our temple trip and of course go to Costa Vida afterwards.  A member in the ward drove us and I got to feed her baby boy snacks in the back seat on the drive up haha so that was fun! While I was in the temple I got to see one of the members from Moses Lake! It was good to see her again.
On Wednesday we went to Mutual again and just met with the Teachers group to talk about missionary work.  They asked us all sorts of questions and it was a lot of fun! I was really impressed with them and how engaged they were with asking questions and listening.  The youth these days are the bomb-diggity!
On Thursday we got to do our first skype lesson with Molly and it was the best lesson EVER! We were teaching her about the Plan of Salvation and she asked us how she could repent because she has done things she knows weren't right.  Then she said, "I want to be baptized so bad!" So we invited her to be baptized and she was SO excited! She started crying and said, "This feels so right! I love this feeling!" Then we all were crying haha.  It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have been in for a while.  And it was over skype!! Even talking through a screen doesn't stop the spirit from touching our hearts.  We met with Molly again yesterday and had a couple of the young women in the ward come to the lesson.  We taught the restoration and it was so powerful to have the two young women there to share their testimonies.  One of them was even baptized less than a year ago, and was able to relate to Molly really well.  Unfortunately, Molly's parents don't want her to be baptized any time soon.  But she'll get there! Whether it takes months or years, she has a pretty solid testimony and is determined that this is what she wants in life.
DeWayne got baptized on Saturday!! He was so happy and really emotional.  Hes a pretty tall guy so they were worried about the guy baptizing him being so much shorter.  But he only had to be dunked once! I think he might have hit his head on the step... haha but he was probably too happy to notice! He was confirmed yesterday and interviewed to receive the Aaronic Priesthood :)
De'Aaron received the Priesthood yesterday and was ordained as a Teacher! We got to go in for the ordination and it was so so good.  Some very powerful things were said.  After church De'Aaron came up to us and asked us if being baptized makes you more attractive all of a sudden.  Lol I guess some girls at school told him he was a "10/10" and he thinks its because he has the Holy Ghost now.  
Oh yeah! We got to go to Primary yesterday for sharing time and talk to the kids about missionary work and what we do as missionaries. They are hilarious! When we asked them to guess where we are from one raised his hand and said "You're Americans!" hahah he wasn't wrong I guess.  We asked them what they thought we do as missionaries and one said, "you make people strong so they can fly on airplanes!" Haha close but not quite.  We also told them that missionaries love getting letters and they could write a missionary a letter. Then a little boy raised his hand and asked if I could write down my "number" so he could write me a letter.  How sweet is that?! 
Love y'all! Have a blessed week :)

-Sister Jensen 

This is a lot of pics so I hope it will send.... I took a selfie with a turkey on Monday when we helped someone clean out their chicken coop.  We found a mouse nest and a bunch of baby mice were running all over in the coop! Theres also a bunch of pics from DeWaynes baptism, and the temple.  And some pics of Molly! Oh and we split some more wood on Wednesday! 

Week 62 - I love Jesus

Exciting news! DeWayne had his interview last night and he's good to go for his baptism this Saturday! I've only been here in Ellensburg for a little over a month and its crazy how close I have grown to the people we're teaching.  DeWayne and Traci are amazing! And I'm so excited for them and the progress that they are making.  

Also! We are going to start teaching a 15 year old girl named Molly.  Its kind of a weird scenario.  So she lives in Cle Elum which is about 30-40 minutes away, and technically the Elders cover that area.  But the Elders don't have enough miles to travel there every week, and neither do we.  But Molly has some friends that go to high school in Ellensburg so they could give us a ride to see Molly! And they're girls, so that wouldn't work out for the elders.  So we got permission to teach her! We met her on Wednesday at mutual and she introduced herself as someone investigating the church then pointed at us and said, "so i'm all yours!" How cool is that?! We're going to be teaching her over skype too and we have our first skype lesson this Thursday :)

Well, today is not a normal pday.  We are going to the temple tomorrow for our semi-annual zone temple trip! So tomorrow is our pday this week.  

I don't have a lot of time so sorry I didn't write about much.  Love you all!

-Sister Jensen

1: We got our flu shot this week :(

2: Pumpkin carving

3:I made this at a relief society activity! The relief society president bought it for us as an "early christmas gift" 

4-5: We did some service for a member and she has the cutest little boys!!

6-7: District council day

8: The finished product

Week 61 - I believe in Christ, so come what may

General Conference was sooo good! But before I talk about that, I'll start at the beginning of the week.

Monday for P-day we went to a guy's house named Butch.  Butch built his house and all of the little shacks around it out of apple crates! He also had underground tunnel/bunker things.  And TONS of food storage.  I think hes preparing for the end of the world haha. But he is way cool! I'll send some pics.  Apparently, he said he had only shown us 5% of the tunnels...

Monday night we had Family Home Evening in the Pearson's home and invited De'Aarons whole family, and they ALL came! De'Aarons mom is named Abril and she was talking to Sister Shinkle about how she would love to be baptized like De'Aaron.  We shared a message about General Conference to get them all hyped and they loved it! Paul, De'Aaron's step-dad, said to us afterwards, "you two need to come over more often.  We need this in our home."  Isn't that a miracle?! He usually doesn't even come out when we are there.  SO EXCITING! 

On Tuesday we had zone conference.  I felt like the main theme was becoming fishers of men! We also talked a lot about how faith precedes miracles.  

I hit a milestone in my mission last week.  I got a call from the mission office known as the "trunky call". Sister Shinkle and I are going home at the same time so we both got our call the same day.  Its basically just a call to confirm our information and they let us know that they booked our flights.  Its weird to think that I am close enough to coming home for them to book my flight.. yikes.

In between General Conferences sessions on Saturday, Sister Shinkle and I got to go to a wedding!! Dewayne, who is getting baptized in two weeks, married Traci who has been a member for most of her life.  It was a really small ceremony in their living room and Bishop was the one to marry them.  The only people there were Traci's sister and her nieces and nephews, and us! So we felt pretty special to get an invite :')

Two hour church!! I LOVE the idea of home centered, church supported learning.  Two hour church has been a big rumor going around so I wasn't super shocked by the announcement of it.  But I am sure this is going to strengthen families SO much! I think it is going to be easy for a lot of people to miss the point.  Its great that church is shortened, but now we all have much more of a responsibility to be teaching the gospel in our homes.  No doubt that this instruction has come from the Lord, He is a wise man :) 

I think one of my favorite talks from conference was Elder Hollands talk.  A statement he made really stuck out to me.  I'm not exactly sure how it was worded, but he said something to the effect of- our relationship with our Savior is strongly related to our relationship with others.   

Its a great reminder of how important it is to love and be kind to each other :)

We watched each session at a different place.  The institute building, the church building, at the Pearson's home, and the last session we watched with a lady named Terry who is not a member of the church.  But she was so sweet and invited us over to watch it with her and have cake and ice-cream.  Lol she fell asleep during it though and started talking in her sleep.. so if conference wasn't entertaining enough, we had her as well ;)

The music at General Conference was bumpin! The Spirit that I felt as I listened to the words they sang was unreal.  I've been singing "This is the Christ" all morning hahah.  

Oh and I loved pondering more on what it actually means to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ.  A lot of speakers brought it up, and it goes right along with the correction of the church's name that President Nelson spoke about.   

I LOVE BEING A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST! There is no greater blessing, or anything more important.  I hope everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did, and if you didn't watch it yet, go do it! 

Love, Sister Jensen 

1-4: I made President and Sister Jackman take a selfie with me at zone conference haha.  Sister Jackman gave all of the sisters this poster so we hung it up in our apartment that night.

The rest is a bunch of pictures from Butch's house.  He puts these big tanks underground.  So most of the pictures are us underground, pretty crazy right?? 

Oh and a couple pictures from Dewayne and Traci's wedding :)