Week 68 - Thankful for Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a bit different than last year! Last year I remember going to at least 3 different dinner appointments and it was CRAZY!! This year we just spent pretty much the whole day with the Pearsons.  There was another family there too from a different ward.  It was so much fun! In the morning we made some cookies with the elders to deliver to people and while they were baking, I taught them how to play nerts, one of my families favorite games.  Its so weird what kind of things will trigger a feeling of missing home and I didn't know that playing a card game would be one of them! But being with the Pearsons, I felt right at home.  Holidays as a missionary are so so special! It amazes me how kind people are and how willing they are to open their homes to us.  We ate A LOT of food and played a bunch of games.  I taught them how to play Reverse Charades (Another one my family liked before I left) and they super loved it! We were laughing a lot.  

On Tuesday we were wondering who to go by and we decided to go knock on Anastasia's door, a college student that we had tracted into a few weeks ago.  Anastasia is from Russia and has such a sweet accent! She accepted a Book of Mormon and told us that we could come back sometime. And guess what!! When we asked if she had looked at the Book of Mormon since we gave it to her, she said she had! She had read some and she really liked it! Usually people don't actually read it when we leave it with them haha so that was such a good sign! We asked if she had a little bit of time and taught her the Restoration.  She said it all made so much sense and she felt like she had the same feelings when she read the Book of Mormon that she has when she reads the Bible.   We're going back to teach her tomorrow! But sadly, the Elder's cover the YSA group so we'll probably have to be passing her off to them to teach her. But at least shes going to be taught, right? Right.  oh and she has this HUGE dog that kept jumping on me while I was on the couch and it knocked me over several times haha.  

We have SO much to be thankful for! I can't believe December starts this week!! Transfer calls will be on Saturday.  Fingers crossed that Sis. Shinkle and I both stay for our last 6 weeks! 

Loves.

-Sister Jensen 

I didn't take a lot of pics this week.  But this is the Elders dressed up as Nephi and Laman.  They acted out the scene where Nephi got tied up on the ship for our Book of Mormon class haha.  And a selfie on Thanksgiving.  Annnd Sister shinkle took this pic of me one morning when the Apartment was cold.  

Week 67 - Gobble Gobble

This week not only will we be feasting on the words of Christ, but we will also be feasting on THANKSGIVING DINNER! Who's pumped? I know I am. We will be having Thanksgiving with the Pearson family.  They are one of my FAV families here! Sooo Zone Conference was really good! We talked about LIGHT THE WORLD because its happening again this December! Instead of daily though, its going to be weekly.  Yall should go to lighttheworld.org and check it out.  We had our interviews with President Jackamn right after Zone Conference and he told Sister Shinkle and I that there is a good chance we will both stay together in Ellensburg for our last transfer! that would mean 3 transfers together! He wanted to make sure it would be okay with the two of us.  Haha transfers still aren't for a couple of weeks.  But we are both really excited that there is a good chance of us staying together!! One of the service activities we did this week was clean eggs... an older member in our ward got hurt and can't stand on her feet for very long so we went out, gathered the eggs, and cleaned them all.  There was a lot of them! I love that there is a large variety of service that we can do for people.  :) Sister Jackman gave a really good training at zone conference this week and I loved something that she said! "Today's test is tomorrows testimony".  Every situation we go through in life is for our good and will make us and our testimonies stronger :) I LOVE YOU ALL! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

-Sister Jensen
1: The reunion of the Ephrata sisters apartment
2: 3 of my companions all in one room!
3-7: We took a photoshoot last pday... theres not much to do in Ellensburg...
8: Sister Shinkle forgot her shoes so she had to wear Nike's to our lessons lolol I was dying!!
9: A member took us out for sushi and I ate raw fish for the first time! 

Week 66 - Its Raining Leaves

Well well well another week down in the books. 

We found a couple people this week while tracting that told us we could come back so we are STOKED about that! 

Molly texted us yesterday and said, "hey theres a girl in young women's that needs to finish her missionary lessons because she wants to get baptized so I gave her your number".  WHAT?! Molly is seriously so awesome.  But its true, I guess there is a girl in Cle Elum named Bailey that was being taught by missionaries off and on and she wants to be baptized, but with no missionaries in Cle Elum anymore thats kind of hard.  So hopefully we'll be getting in contact with her soon! Cool, eh? 

We've been raking leaves like crazy down here! I've decided that I never want to have trees in my yard haha.  

I don't know if any of yall remember me talking about Jeremy and Stephanie but we haven't been able to see them in foreverrrrr but we finally did on Saturday!! They had a baby shower and invited us to it! So we went and it was really good.  As we left they told us to keep in contact with them so thats a REALLY good sign.  We were pretty worried there for a bit haha.  We love them.

Mike has only been a member since August and he is bomb at ministering! In the beginning he asked us questions about it all the time like, when do I officially start? What am I suppose to do? Should I contact my companion? I mean, he was all sorts of worried about how to do it.  But he has just gone for it and its awesome! He ministers to an older lady that Sister Shinkle and I go visit at a senior living center.  She talks about Mike all the time and all the things he does for her.  He takes her to the store when she needs it, helps her with her computer problems, helped her set up LDS tools on her phone, and just calls her and talks to her on the phone when she's lonely.  Its so amazing to me the heart he has for serving others.  He is truly an example of ministering for the whole ward.  Its quite inspiring. 

I have zone conference tomorrow! Haha President Jackman is awesome.  This is what he just said in the mission group email: In case you’ve forgot, lost track of time, or have been living under a rock it’s Zone Conferences this coming Tuesday and Wednesday!

He is a funny guy.  

We talked with Molly about repentance last night and the thought of repentance really overwhelmed her.  So we talked a lot about how repentance is such a happy and positive thing.  I think Satan tries to convince us otherwise. Repentance is such a beautiful gift.  I love the quote, "Repentance is not the back-up plan, repentance IS the plan".  I don't know who said that... but its really good.  Its pretty great that we are able to repent EVERY day of our mistakes and shortcomings.  

I love you guys!!! Stay warm.  I've been pulling out the winter clothes! Yayy....

Love, Sister Jensen

We have gloves in our car that we use to rub an elderly ladies feet once a week and I blew one up and thought it was kinda funny.  I used it going through a drive thru to wave goodbye to the window worker lol.  Annnd since the Elders ditched us last P-day and left us in Ellensburg alone, we went and got pedicures.  It was pretty cool actually because we were able to talk to the lady doing our feet about the church! You never know when and where you'll meet people that are ready for the gospel ;)

Week 65 - Holy Guacamole it's NOVEMBER!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! We had to be home by 6 so we borrowed a bunch of extra sheets from a member and made a big fort in our living room.   Then we moved our mattresses off of our bunk bed and put them in the fort.  We watched the Living Scriptures (also borrowed from the same member) and roasted s'mores over our stove.  It was pretty great! 

We had exchanges with our STL's this week and I got to be in Yakima with Sister Hatch.  I remember my first two exchanges as a missionary, I came back to Sister Wadman and was so relieved because being with a different companion felt so weird! I even cried because I had missed her so much hahah.  And not that I didn't miss Sister Shinkle, but these days, its just missionary life.  I just felt like I was starting a new transfer with a new companion and the transition is a lot smoother than it use to be! It was a lot of fun.  Its weird to think I only have one more exchange.

Our zone started a "Zone Fast" yesterday.  Its not a fast from food though.  What we're doing is disabling our Facebooks for 2 weeks.  And we also are only listening to the Tabernacle choir or General Conference talks.  And we are making sure to be out of our apartment by 10 every day and stay out until 9.  Its pretty simple actually! We are doing the fast so that we can recognize miracles but Sister Shinkle and I are especially trying to find the people that are prepared to hear the gospel.  

We started a Book of Mormon class on Thursday! Every week we are going to study stories from the Book of Mormon and how they can relate to our own lives.  We're hoping that quite a bit of people will start coming. This thursday we are studying about the Tree of Life in Lehi's vision!

On Thursday last week at the Book of Mormon class we talked about Lehi's family leaving Jerusalem and then Nephi and his brothers going back to get the plates.  They tried 3 times before they were able to retrieve them.  Sometimes in life, God asks us to do something and then the first time we may fail.  Which can be pretty confusing! But just like Nephi, if we have faith that God will prepare a way and we keep trying, we will be able to accomplish whatever it is that God asks us to do.  Haha now when I read the Book of Mormon I picture the Living Scriptures characters in my mind and its pretty funny.  

Until next week friends! Love you all.  

-Sister Jensen 

Heres some pics of the fort we made on halloween, our Book of Mormon class, and a picture with the STL's from exchanges.

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!