I am glad to hear that the 4th of July was fun for you all. Jealousy does not even begin to describe my lack of dutch oven cooking and fireworks. Luckily the Lord watched out for us and we had a delightful day. We decided to car fast, it was about 92 and humid (love it!) and we walked a good 7 miles! It is a good thing that I love to walk because I really drag Sister Wright all around Mt Pleasant sometimes. Monday we planned to walk out to an appointment then stop at Less Active families on the way to another appointment that was on the other side of things. We pleaded that these families would be home and lo and behold as we would walk down the street there they would be in their garages cleaning out or doing yard work. Truly a blessing. We were able to teach/walk all day on Monday. Then the YSA invited us over for FHE. Rumor has been circulating around the YSA that I like homemade rice crispies so they made a huge flag of them, colored even, and after the lesson and walking all day we got to sit in their apartment talking laughing, playing Blast from the Past (a really cool Mormon history game which I won the game we played :D) and eating rice crispies. It was a fantastic way to celebrate the 4th. Then we listened to fireworks, we could only see the tops of them over the trees from our apartment.
Tuesday I wanted to die. The Elders had given us a woman in her mid 60's that we taught Monday, well I guess that she did not like us and called to complain to the Zone Leaders and so bright and early Tuesday morning the Elders called and told us about it. I was crushed, the appointment wasn't that bad, or I didn't think that it was such the horror that she told the Elders about. They said that they knew there was some other concern and that she was just taking it out on us, but ouch. I cried most of the morning, through service at the care center we were playing Bingo (ever since the Philippines I really do not like bingo) and the rest of the day Sister Jensen's soul went into hiding. We were able to teach some lessons and get a new investigator but it was really difficult. Thank heavens as well for inspired leaders, our District leader called Tuesday night just asking how we were doing. He usually doesn't call on Tuesday's to follow up but he said that he felt he needed to, well after he heard about the situation he gave some quality advice and told us to move on with the work.
Wednesday was amazing. Our companionship had been a little rocky at the beginning of the week but it turned around, we studied the talk from this past conference from Elder D Todd Christofferson about Whom the Lord loves He chastens, also I spent a long time in Moses comparing the difference between how God talks to Moses and how Satan talks to Moses. Amazing to think that sometimes Satan does rant and rave and makes us quake with fear but if we remember our Heavenly Father then faith replaces that fear and we are blessed as we remember God. That was seen the rest of this week, we went out with a greater desire to do the work to reach the standards of excellence and we have been blessed for that. Sunday night we drove out to a dinner with the Elders (yes we had president's permission) but as we were driving the Elders challenged us to reach the standards of excellence for the mission to have the faith to go out and work hard. For some reason that hit me hard and I have been studying how I can become a better missionary, praying more sincerely and more often, I have seen my desire to understand my purpose increase. Which is why I think Tuesday was so necessary, for after the trials cometh the blessings. Tuesday was our trial but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the blessings.
Friday we went to midland and were able to meet President and Sister Hess. Yay Sister Hess recognized me, and said that Lindsay said hello, awesome! They are going to help this mission catch the fire of missionary work and we are going to go places that we cannot even comprehend yet. He was one of the people who helped the schools in Utah go online with UEN and is very tech savvy which means that we are going to be doing a lot of work with computers and social networking to find people. Still not sure how that is going to work or when that will start but we are going to go places with President Hess. There was an amazing Spirit at that meeting. Also what was joyous was the fact that afterwards we were able to talk with the other missionaries for a few minutes before everyone left. I missed the friendships of the Elders in the Philippines and so far have not seen here until yesterday, usually they run from sisters like we have the plague but yesterday Elders actually talked to us. Miracle! We got back late (the Elders drove again and with them being Zone leaders they had to distribute supplies) and when we got to that appointment there was a note taped to the door for MORMONS, it basically said we were lairs and to not even contact her anymore. Awesome. We had a very silent lunch break and started work in Shepherd at 3pm. We contacted a referral, got a return appointment, tracted that street and when that was not successful we went to get a slushy at Nana's Ice Cream parlor. It is a small town that really doesn't have much in it, but the town has the feel as if it has been trapped in the 1970's just a very simple way of life. Its nice to get a change from the college campus sometimes. After that we drove to the far end of our area to visit a sister in a Senior Living Center, while there we met an elusive less active that we have been trying to find since our first week here and she was just sitting there when we walked in...Miracle! As we were teaching their friend Vivian came over and joined in and started to ask questions about what we believe and we were able to pick her up as an investigator and have a return appointment with her next Friday. Miracles really never cease. Then we drove to see Sister Chubb also a less active who has really become active and was working on going to the temple, she broke her hip on Sunday and has been in a hospital out of our area and we couldn't find anyone to drive us to see her (we called 17 people and asked then figured if it was that hard we weren't supposed to go) she was finally moved to a care center in Mt Pleasant. Her husband is also in the hospital now with a blood clot in his leg from a tractor falling on him. Its been a crazy week!! Anyway she was so happy we came to see her since her phone died before she was able to tell us she had moved. The Spirit really is so necessary to this work. Then we had no time for dinner we just quickly went to our next two appointments. Both less active sisters, both doing well. Sister VanHorn has been a challenge in the past, she has argued and at times we have left those appointments feeling really down. Lately the past few visits we have been able to feel the Spirit and she has open up more and more, well yesterday she said the opening prayer and apologized for giving us trouble about it in the past. Not only was it a fantastic day to start with meeting president and meeting the mission standards with our findings but to end with Sister VanHorn telling us that she wants to work on becoming worth to enter the temple again I about fell off my seat, I almost expected to hear concourses of angels singing and rejoicing. When we got back to our apartment we prayed then got off our knees and jumped up and down hugging because we had met the mission standards and because we have been so blessed this week.
I am forever grateful for the chance that I have to serve, I know that sometimes my letters get long and you don't really know who I am talking about but these people mean so much to me now. I get the opportunity to invite them to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. What a blessing that is!
I love and pray for you all!
Ingat,
Sister Rebecca Jensen
"As we recognize our strengths, stretch ourselves in service, ignore the devil's derision, and build our faith, we will overcome feelings of personal inadequacy. Ultimately, we will fell an ever-increasing sense of value and worth as we draw closer to the Savior." -Elder David Baxter
No comments:
Post a Comment