I send my love and warm wishes home. I am super grateful that the weather here has also been pretty temperate, especially since we have been spending about 2-4 hours daily tracting the area. We really have not had much success this week, we have talked to hundreds of people and most of them "have that taken care of, but thank you anyway and you have a great day, I hope you find success." I love how they hope that we find success because the world needs it, and they don't. Slight eye roll. I still love the work, don't get me wrong but on occasions tracting for hours has its toll. We got transfer calls on Friday, I have never been more grateful to hear Elder Adams and Elder Hunter call and tell us that we will be staying. This next transfer will be 7 weeks long to make up for this past 5 week transfer. Those have been adjusted so that President Hess can come in and get settled a little before he has to do the shifting. He will officially take over the mission June 29th! I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying past. I have already spend 2 months here! Wow. :D Last Sunday we went to find a less active out by our dinner appointment and there were dogs. I seem to have a calming effect on most animals, I think it comes from the lessons I learned from Rupert my snake. The fact that he could sense when I was scared and nervous and he would act weird when I was, but if I was calm then he would just coil happily around my fingers. Well when we got out of the car this dog came up to my side so I scratched its head and made sure it was comfortable with me, then we got out of the car and were walking towards the house. Well about halfway to the house I noticed that it started to growl and act funny. Sister Wright hates dogs and she is not the most peaceful person around them, well I guess somewhere between walking to the house and those nerves the dog decided to go for her. It was honestly terrifying to watch the dog charge my companion. Luckily I we were able to stop, I was able to call it back over towards me and we both slowly backed up and got into the car. I am so grateful for the protection of the Spirit and that this situation was only a scare not anything more serious. Either way we both crossed this LA off of our list to visit and will give them over to the Elders and their Home Teachers. I finally begged to borrow a members vacuum this week and was able to vacuum our apartment. Quality of life just increased tenfold. I wake up happier, exercise doesn't leave me feeling like I have played in dirt and it just looks so much better. I am so grateful that someone invented the vacuum and that somehow Mom and Dad you raised me loving to clean. So much so that when days go really bad I find solace it ironing my shirts for the next day or washing part of the floor with pine-sol. Yes, I am weird. We met SO MANY people this week that are either talking about divorce or are mid divorce papers. I am so sick of divorce! We have a huge stack of old Ensigns and most of them have articles about strengthening marriage, making sure that there is healthy communication and love in the relationship so that divorce doesn't even come up. I know that those are all of the prevention measures but how do you help someone reconcile their marriage when they are on the verge of filing for divorce, when they have even stopped living in the same household. I struggle to comprehend all of the feelings that these people go through and how we are supposed to help them understand that the only thing that will really save their marriage is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Plain and simple, there is it, the gospel as restored through Joseph Smith will save any marriage, not only save it but help it last into the Eternities. It is so easy to see how the gospel will help them, I just am having trouble getting that message across to people since they just don't seem to be listening to us when we testify that this gospel can save your marriage. Some say that they don't even want it saved. What a wicked world that we live in now, where husbands and wives don't even want to stay together to raise their families. Enough of that soapbox. Onto the fun part of the week, we got to go split wood for the Hammer family. I love this family, they are completely awesome! They even ordered me a pizza without cheese without my reminding them :) Happiness. We spent yesterday afternoon stacking wood and using their wood splitter to split the logs that the Elders had worked on earlier. I had so much fun being out in the woods (ie their 11 acre yard) and just working hard, also I got really good at stacking wood and being able to tell the different woods apart. It was really fun. We are teaching a new sister her name is Julz, she has just graduated from CMU and is totally changing her life. She has given up drugs, alcohol, smoking, and as we taught her the Plan of Salvation she was drinking coffee and asked about that, so we talked about the WOW. She seriously drank the last of that cup and said that is it I am done drinking coffee. I am proud of her, we are praying that she gets her answer about the truthfulness of the BOM and she prays this week and that she will come to church this week. The Hickey's are struggling emotionally but still determined to endure to the end. We went over and had FHE with them on Tuesday. The lesson was about studying the scriptures which they both said they are struggling to do. So we challenged them to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. They both agreed and we then challenged them to read 10 minutes a day minimum from the Book of Mormon so that they can reach their goal. Brother Hickey has been having trouble sleeping and we were able to promise him more peace of mind and ability to sleep if he reads the Book of Mormon daily. We have been keeping up with him through facebook, checking on his daily reading. So far he has not missed a day! President I am not sure what to do about Sister Hickey, the party went well last week. We fasted for her on Tuesday, also that we would know what we can do to help her. We pray for her constantly, in every prayer, the Hickey family is always on my mind, I seriously eat, sleep, and live Hickey. We went to go teach her the Restoration yesterday and she was not home, we talked to her neighbor Aimee (she is also Filipino). She told us that Alma had been picked up by a friend a few hours ago. We then invited Aimee to learn about the gospel, she declined saying that she used to be a ministers wife and there is so much confusion in the world that she doesn't want to move from her set beliefs. We gave it our all to invite her to learn more, but felt that we needed to not pressure her. Then we saw that Mark Hickey had come home so we went and talked with him, he told us that Alma is up North for a weekend with a friend, we told him that if he needed anything to feel free to call us. I felt devastated when I heard that news. We have been praying that Sister Hickey would be prepared for us Friday to hear the message of the restoration. Sister Wright and I both felt good and excited about it, then we got there not only is she gone but she was on a weekend trip with a "friend." We are going to try back this Sunday when Mark said she returns home, I will work for this family as hard as I can. I know that this gospel can heal any relationship, not only heal it but help it last into the eternities. I still have hope that things will work out but it pains my soul to see Brother and Sister Hickey still arguing, still talking about divorce papers. I know that as a missionary we can do things that no one else can do, that with faith and the Spirit all things are possible. I know that I have been sent here to help them, I just plead many times on my knees daily to know what it is that this family needs to unify them. We got up early to play tennis. Sister Wright played through college and has gone to Hawaii for tournaments. So the game was on. Luckily, once again Mom and Dad, I owe you for all those tennis lessons we took in the summer. I actually didn't do too bad. We only had one ball leave the fencing! It was a gorgeous morning to be out playing. Also the flowers are just beautiful up here, there are more iris' than I have ever seen in my life. Some that even smell like root beer! I have been teaching Sister Wright the names of the flowers as we walk past them. Who knew I had so many flower names memorized. I guess those Jensen useless trivia jeans are kicking in at an early age. This week could you all send me your testimonies about FAITH. Yes I am serious, write it down, email it, somehow send it to me. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you all! Happy Birthday Clark! Happy Father's Day Dad! Happy Birthday Monica!! Welcome home Jake!! Have a great week, and enjoy the longest day of the year!
Mahal ko po Kayo!!
Ingat, Sister Rebecca Jensen
No comments:
Post a Comment