Dear Family,
I am sitting in the Park Library on the Central Michigan University campus, it is quite a lovely campus and a very very nice library. They have BYU beat for amount of sunlight and open space, it just has a very calm feel about it. Mind you about 25,000 students went home for the summer to campus is like a waste land, but I have really enjoyed walking around campus. The one downer is being around all of these buildings and library I have the greatest desire to be back in school, not even kidding I just long to be learning again. I love the classroom setting being able to learn among peers and professors. One awesome thing is that as part of the CMU missionary program in the area we get to be online a lot more often, doing things on Facebook especially.
I do have so say that I got the coolest package this week and it completely made my week happier and I absolutely love it. So thank you SO MUCH for sending it!!!
We work with the Zone Leaders in this area we are to split the work Females with the Sisters and Males with the Elders, but we also get to teach the new member lessons and do all the other missionary things. We have been finding out very quickly that we don't know much of what we are doing with the elders but they are sure fast to correct us when they notice that we aren't working like they want us to.................
My companion is Sister Wright, she is awesome. She is from St George and went to BYU for a while and lived across the street from me when I lived in Moon. Meaning that I probably walked past her a few times a week and didn't even know it. She is my tallest companion and still not close to my height, she does love to walk (which is good because I have made us walk quite a bit in the last few days). She has had only 3 months of being a missionary so I get to help her understand the joys and pains of missionary life and since we are both opening this area together we have seen many of them in just the past few days.
The miracles this week have been just fantastic. We were out tracting yesterday and the house that we were trying to visit (one of those come back later people) they weren't home so we tracted down their street and we knocked into this guy who seriously way excited to see us, we asked why and he showed us his phone as said that he had been trying to call the church all day. Wow. He "called" us there. The number was for the church building so no one was answering. We would have taught him there but he is in a half way house and since we have elders we thought it might be safer that way. He asked us for a Book of Mormon as we were finishing up, we gladly gave it to him along with a challenge to start from the beginning and pray about it. He was really excited and I hope that after what he has been through is prepared to change his life.
We also were able to visit with a less active sister who after we got to know her a little bit we both paused, not sure of what to say I just prayed that the spirit would be there and guide our lesson, well as I was doing that this sister opened up and told us her life story her concerns and her issue about not being able to pay tithing because of financial problems right now in her life. Well I turned to Malachi 3 and shared those scriptures, she still was not understanding the need to pay her tithing not just when it was convenient but always. I talked about the Filipino people and President Hinckley's promise to them. Then I shared 2 Nephi 4:32 about how we need to rely on the arm of the Lord not the arm of flesh. I.e.: pay your tithing and God will take care of you, trust in check into cash and you are going to continue staying in debt. Then what came out of my mouth next still amazes me, I said something to the effect of: As a representative of Jesus Christ I promise you that if you pay your tithing, God will open up the windows of heaven and will bless you beyond anything you can comprehend and you will be out of debt. I felt the Spirit from the tip of my head to the souls of my feet, I haven't felt the Spirit testify through me that strong in a long time and it felt so wonderful to know that I in someway was able to be a mouth piece of the Lord.
I have really felt the pressure of this assignment, yet I have never felt more peace than this week either. I have received more promptings, more revelation, and seen the hand of the Lord more than for this area than at any other time in my life. I am really growing and growing quickly. I already have most of the area down and it has only been a few days. Miracle!!!
As for the Filipinos, I have met the Hickey Family, they are the reason I am here and the Elder's didn't even let us have time to get to know them. It was in start the lesson, teach the lesson, close the lesson run out the door. I feel like these elders are either afraid of us or just don't want anything to do with us because as we have been going with them to appointments they pull their chairs our 5 feet from ours and practically have to yell across to the person or they answer our questions and leave as fast as possible, never mind that we have a million more questions about the area. Sigh. It is going to take some getting used to. We keep praying to earn their trust but I am not sure how that is going to happen, everything we do seems to come up short and not the way they wanted it. But I know that the Lord trusts us and that He is happy with the work because I sure feel the Spirit strong and its peace and guidance so I am going to go with the Lord on this one and the Elders will catch up in time.
Language study has been going really well with Sister Wright, she took some Spanish in school and so the words are not as hard for her to say. Blessing. Another blessing is that I have been given bit by bit what I should teach and in what order it would make more sense. I know that I am being guided as I teach this language!!! I may never have the opportunity to teach in the MTC or to really use my Tagalog elsewhere but I am sure glad that I get to share this beautiful language with my companions.
So when we moved into our apartment we didn't even have silverware. All the walls were completely white, except for a few whiteboards that had a calendar and some old information written on them. We have been frantically trying to find pictures from Ensigns and putting them on the walls. I bought some pine-sol and went to town on our kitchen floor. We don't have a broom or vacuum or anything yet (the Relief Society President said that she would get right on that). I scrubbed that floor until it was pine fresh and clean, that helped me calm down a lot. Then I cleaned the walls and the bathroom....honestly did these elders never clean. We didn't have any scrubbing bubbles but I had enough fun with Clorox. It is looking a lot better and starting to feel more livable.
If you can't tell I am grateful for you letters and support, the peace and comfort that I feel from your prayers is pinakagunda sa kaluluwa ko. Please keep it up, there is no way to describe how much it helps me continue in this work and how calm I have felt while doing it.
I know that this Gospel is true!!! If you have any doubt read the Book of Mormon, there is no better source of truth and to see and feel of God's love for His children than the history and contents of that blessed book.
Mahal na Mahal ko po kayo!!
Sister Rebecca Jensen
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