Sister's Conference!

(copied with permission from Sister Benton's post)

Our ¨Sister´s Conference¨ yesterday was a resounding success! The theme was: "Mujeres de Dios¨ - "Women of God" It was a clear, sunny day, and we started out the day by attending an 8 a.m. session at the Buenos Aires Temple together. President Benton, our Assistants, Elder Kelly and Elder Pollock, and our Senior Missionary, Elder Henderson were there too.When we came out of the temple, we were all amazed at the beauty of the grounds. All the plants were perfectly manicured all around it with many types of beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. As the sun shined on us as we walked around the grounds, it all looked so perfect that we thought it looked like the ¨Celestial Kingdom¨ must look. We then posed for photos, taken by Elder Kelly and Elder Pollock at a few spots around the Temple. One of the photos was of us holding our ¨Mission Banner¨.

We then boarded a small bus together and rode to the ¨Casa de la Mision¨. On the way, we all took ¨The Color Code Test¨, which was not only a fun game, but it helped us understand ourselves and other people better. While we were on the bus, we gave each Sister a special, spiral bound book we had put together for the Conference. It contained inspiring quotes and speeches by Church leaders that we thought would help the Sisters with their missionary work. The book was printed in both Spanish and English. Our Assistants, Elder Kelly and Elder Pollock did a beautiful job of putting together the physical part of the book for us, including the use of pink paper and flowers on the cover. Elder Kelly and Elder Pollock also made sure that each Sister had her name printed in a nice ¨script¨ font on the front of her individual book. I especially liked how the Elders had included on the cover, Sister Margaret Nadauld´s quote about ¨Women of God¨, which I wrote on the blog several days ago. Elder Kelly and Elder Pollock did an excellent job, along with President Benton and our Senior Missionary, Elder Henderson, of serving as our ¨Priesthood Support¨ for the conference. We can´t thank all of these great men enough for all they did for us! After we arrived at the ¨Casa de la Mision¨, we held ¨opening exercises¨, where we sang a church hymn and had an opening prayer. Then, President Benton and I each delivered a speech. After the speech, we all walked out on the patio, where our dear friend and helper, Maria, had set a beautiful table for us, and she served us a delicious lunch she had made, which included her ¨famous¨ homemade chocolate covered cakes with fresh strawberries on top, for dessert.

After lunch the Senior Sister Missionary, Sister Rawson, taught us some stress reduction exercises, where I found myself on the floor with the Sisters, ¨de- stressing.¨ Sister Rawson´s lesson was very helpful to us, since we women tend to get more stressed than men do. After the de- stressing lesson, Sister Pruner and Sister Di Stefano sang a beautiful song for us accompanied by Sister Cole at the piano Then we held a meeting where each of us had the opportunity to ¨Bear Our Testimony.¨ A ¨Testimony Meeting¨ is a time where we share our feelings of love for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the Gospel He brought us. We also express our knowledge that the Gospel is true and we talk about how living the Gospel commandments and values helps us to grow spiritually and brings us happiness, security, joy and peace.

It was then time to board the bus for a short visit to the "Rio de la Plata", where we did a little walking together, and took a few more photos before President Benton and I bid a "farewell" to the Sister Missionaries as they boarded the bus to return to their missionary apartments and to get back to doing the "Work of the Lord".The Sister Missionaries were all happy and relaxed by this point. Several of them told us that they felt spiritually re-charged and re-energized to be better missionaries when they returned to their areas.We included above a few random photos of the great memories we made at our very successful "Sister's Conference." We are forever grateful to the Lord for all our blessings, including our "Sister's Conference, and we also extend our "thanks" to all those who helped us create this wonderful day of spiritual experiences, growth and knowledge!
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1.26.2009

Finishing the transfer!
He-e-ey!
I love the Draper temple pictures... it´s super gorgeous!

About the prank… it was a no go because mad cow disease broke out and so all the carnecerías stopped vending brains for a while. We were bummed, but it was a blessing in disguise because in the end a different companionship of sisters stayed the night with us and they wouldn´t have thought it was all that funny.

Cool story about the hero pilot – I´m thrilled to be informed of such things.

Sofia did not need to get special permission… anyone who wants to be baptized face first can.

About photocopying my baptism picture and mailing it as a pouch letter-- that is totally kosher and will get to me without problems… in fact anything that is printed directly on the paper can come… you just can´t tape or glue anything on. Thanks!

Everybody wants to stop me and talk politics… the Argentines all seem to have a great deal of faith in Obama. They are all so relieved that he won. I am excited to see how America changes – if it does.

My companion is scabies –free and me too! The cream she took eventually cured her and I was ever protected from getting it!

The Sister's Conference was a giant tender mercy! As you can see in the photos, we were treated like princesses and truly spoiled! It made me remember that we are each special and that we are truly well taken care of. They will be taking place probably every other transfer, but of course, we´re pushing for every transfer! The President looked at me in the eye and asked, “every transfer?” and I of course said yes… so just maybe they will happen every transfer. I hope so. It would really give me a lift every transfer, but if not, every other transfer is still an incredible blessing!

Hermana Johns told me all about how one of the people we found together and taught the first lesson in Castelar has progressed a ton and has a baptisimal date and everything!

She also told me that Gera´s mom (another person we found and began teaching together in Castelar) has progressed and has a baptismal date. And the cool part is her son Gera is going to baptize her because he already has the Aaronic priesthood. I wish I could be there, but it´s completely out of the question – mission policy, but she promised to send me pictures… seeds we planted in Castelar are being baptized! YEEHAW!

I went to the pharmacy and paid $37 pesos for a cream to treat my stye and it is just about gone! Yea for medicine… however, on Saturday I was incredibly sick, we were all but convinced that I have a parasite because I had diarrhea, nausea, muscle pain, neck pain the whole works. But we had an appointment with a great investigator first thing in the morning and knowing me, you can imagine that we left to work just like normal, and worked the entire day, even though I was feeling pretty lousy. The Lord blessed me and I was able to cope in the 40 degree heat (about 102) that felt like 45 (about 112) all day long! The next day I was almost back to normal.

It´s hard to sleep at night because the air is 31 degrees (about 87 degrees) in our apartment, and even with the windows open and the fan at full speed… it´s pretty ineffective. I will be trying the wet shirt trick the next time I wake up and can´t sleep. But I don´t like the idea of doing it, because I feel wet in my clothes all day long and don´t want to suffer it at night too. Can you blame me? We try to abate the heat at night by opening the windows, but that means that in the middle of the night when the punks teenagers ride past our street on their motorcycles it wakes us up because they have mufflers or whatever that screech so loud that it seems to penetrate the atmosphere or something like that. This usually happens twice a night. For fun!

FYI – this transfer ends on Feb. first and then I just have 6 more… so few! So sad!

There are good Samaritans in Argentina, but you still can´t trust them. Explanation; we accidentally left our keys in the door (the outside of the door) one night and when we got up in the next morning they weren´t there. We knocked the doors of our 3 neighbors in our gated apartment complex and nobody answered, the landlord came and changed the lock and we went out to work. The next morning we were able to contact Fernando on the third floor and he said that when he came home that night at 2 am he saw the keys and took them so that the workers that come in the morning didn´t see them and take them. He didn´t want to knock the door at 2 am because he knew we´d freak out. Then when he left that morning he put them more discretely at the foot of our door so that we would find them. They were there waiting for us when we got back for lunch! But our landlord is making us pay to change the lock anyways because you never know if the good Samaritan made a duplicate of the key (you know at 2 am … NOT!) I want to trust him and use the same lock, but know that it´s 40 pesos and it could save our lives, so I´ll try not to complain. But the real miracle is that our wonderful neighbor returned the keys because they were also the keys to the chapel, and the baptismal font! The bishop would have just about killed us if we had lost them. So at least my prayers to find the keys were answered in a way that prevented that disaster--and the bishop never had to hear about it. Yea, for Fernando the good Samaritan!

About the investigators; we were finally able to convince people to let us pass by and bring them to church with us. One is Miguel Benites – 79 years old and it is going to be a battle getting him to recognize that the Church is true, but he let us pick him up, stayed all 3 hours, and is willing to do his part. The problem is he wants a book that proves that Joseph Smith was a prophet… you know like the Book of Mormon! But he is basically blind so we will be reading it to him out loud… and helping him gain a testimony of it in a much slower way than if he were able to read it and do it all over night, but he will progress… I really hope so!

The other is Faustino Arce, he is 64 and is very wise and hard… he accepts that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but this next appointment we are going to try to take out a baptismal date, and he just might reject it… he wants to 'know' not feel things. But he too, let us pick him up, was dressed in a suit, stayed all 3 hours and said he´d be back the next Sunday.

Cool thing about serving in a ward wherein resides a Seventy… you can present him to all your investigators and I´ll bet you can imagine he is a stellar fellowshipper! He talked to them both for like 15 minutes after church! I wanted to stop them and say – you are being fellowshipped by a General Authority, but they don´t quite know what that is yet. But anyways, both are progressing! We will be challenging both of them to be baptized… Miguel today and Faustino on Saturday! Pray for them to accept a date. Thanks!

The miracle was that another couple and their grandchild showed up 45 minutes late for Sacrament Meeting, and could only stay till the end of that first meeting, but it was really, really cool to see people show up on their own doing! We had taught the husband – Francisco, about 70 the first lesson earlier that week. We forgot to call and remind him about Church because of how sick I was Saturday night, but he came all by himself and brought his wife (in a skirt!) and his 4 year old grandson. We went back the next day and taught his daughter Maribel who said everything a missionary wants to hear: How can I come to believe and know about this Joseph Smith? (You have to pray!) She was so excited to read the pamphlet and the Book of Mormon and we are going back tomorrow with a member. I hope that she gets an answer when she prays and that she progresses. She seems so golden!

Faustino says that I walk wrong and that I should check my shoes… he was right, I have worn a good 4 mm off of one of the corners of my left sole and the other is completely normal. I don´t know what to do to correct it, but I´ll just keep walking and when the shoes are totally bad I´ll take a picture to show the difference in one sole to the next. It´s pretty cool, actually.

Then we started off this week and just might have found a FAMILY! They are not that golden, but there is a spark of hope. Other than the fact that they are leaving for vacation in a week. But we think they´re married – the husband was at work, but the mom (Veronica) had listened to the missionaries a tiny bit years ago and her 9 year old daughter Pamela is a sweet girl. The other kid Franco is almost 5. How cool would it be to help a family… a real family get baptized!

Nata – every time I see cute baby clothes here I want to buy them for Davy, but then I realize, that it is nothing more or less cool than all the clothes they have in the states, and with less chance of being robbed in the mail, but know that I always want to buy him things and send them. I´ll probably cave eventually, but we´ll see.

Jason – are you re-compiling your training advice for me? I want your wisdom.

Well then, that is just about all the time I have for today. The next time I write I could have a new companion, and who knows, I could be in a different area. You never know. I doubt it, but you never know. I hope that you have a lovely week and that you enjoy the chilly weather while I sweat all day long!

I love you so much and am especially thankful for telling me some of the things you pray for… it helped me a ton.

Never forget how blessed we are to know the gospel. It is something that so few people have and everyone needs.

As always, you are in my prayers,
Hermana Jensen! Go, fight, win!

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1 COMMENTS:

Beth Cole said...
My name is Sister Beth Cole from Melba, Idaho and I am the mother of Sister Ashley Cole who is a missionary in the Buenos Aires West Mission. I love reading your blog and looking at the pictures (especially the ones with my daughter in them). I'm sure you understand that Mom's are thirsty for any information about things that are going on in Argentina. It sounds like the "Sister's Conference" was a great spiritual and physical lift.

I can feel the missionary spirit in the beautiful letters and think the people of Argentina are lucky to have such a righteous sister to teach them. Thanks for sharing your missionary experiences.
FEBRUARY 22, 2009 10:49 PM

This Email Begins With A Miracle!

Sofia was baptized! At first as she entered the water she started to whimper and panic, but the brother that baptized her calmed her down and she did it… first try and all. She submerged face first instead of backwards… but it counts! As she was whimpering I literally pled with the Lord to help her. He answered all of our prayers and she was able to calm down and within 3 or 4 minutes… was baptized and later confirmed!

I cannot tell you the half of the story of what happened afterwards, but remind me to tell you when I get home about the ordeal that we endured after this baptism. It was pretty rough, but I don´t want to even go there now… in 10 months I´ll tell you all about it… and about how my tongue hurt for days to come… if that isn´t enough of a tease… I don´t know what is!

Thanks for asking about divorces, Argentina has a tough time...it takes anywhere from 1 to 79 years to get one.

About things I could use….could you send me the make- up remover, another one of those little Sally Hansen cuticle lotion thingies… it was a small circle with orange goo inside it… I love it! If you can track down a picture of my baptism, I´d love a photocopy of it, and I would also love to receive a 5th Avenue Bar. Oh, and cowtails if you can find some, if not it´s all good. THANKS!


Nata: I loved the pix of Davy and can´t believe how big he is! I miss that little guy. I hope that you have a lovely trip coming home in March. I´m also thrilled to hear that the BOM Wheel of Fortune worked out and was a hit. You´ll have to tell me all about how to do that when I get home!

The mission is a lot like "Survivor" when they are thinking and planning about "the merger" that´s like every transfer. And having a family member visit you is like the Christmas phone call. And when you get to eat good food or a candy bar you won on a challenge… that´s like getting and opening a package from home!

I have a question for you guys…. When you pray for me, what do you ask Heavenly Father? Due to the fact that the last two weeks have been insanely trying I´ve been doing a lot of pleading of my own and it dawned on me that it would be a strengthening experience to know some of the specific thinks that you pray for when you pray for me. If it isn´t too personal, would you mind telling me a few of them so that I can pay more attention and realize the blessings that I receive because of the prayers of my family? Does that make sense?

I´m going to pull my first mission prank tonight on the sisters that are sleeping in our apartment for the Sister Conference tomorrow. They sale brains in the meat stores here and me and my comp are going to buy one and put it in the fridge and then during the night when the other sisters are here my comp is going to ask one of them to get something that she has in the fridge and we are going to scare them with a brain on a plate! It´s going to be a riot! I´ll let you know how it goes!

The other day we were feeling about as empty as you can feel and we got on a colectivo to go to the far end of the area and we were so like depressed that I said "we´re going to play a game" we stood in the aisle of the colectivo and weren´t allowed to touch anything to support us and we had to see who could go the longest without falling and grabbing something for support. Sounds easy, right? But you have to remember that the colectivos here drive super fast, and there are a bajillion turns and speed bumps. We tied because we both made it the entire trip, but we were giggling and laughing and felt all better afterwards. There were only 2 other people on the bus, so we didn´t cause too big of a scene and they were oblivious to our existence anyways. It made me smile again and then we were able to work better.

Speaking of colectivos (and trains) they raised the prices this week! What used to cost .65 now costs .80. What used to cost .90 now costs $1.10 and what used to cost $1.20 now costs $1.50. That´s like a 20% increase in some cases… imagine what that does to us! It´s not just about the money… remember the real struggle is having CHANGE! I wonder if the mission is going to increase our monthly stipend to compensate for the inflation in the public transportation. I hope so, because it really would become necessary, but I certainly won´t be the one to ask for it.

I´m rationing the peanut butter, and I have one thing of PEZ left. I like to dip apple wedges in the PB… you should try that. And my comp and I love to eat the mint lifesavers in the heat. It is so fun to have those things from home!

Daddy, in my interview last week with Pres. Benton he asked about Sunwood and said that it was good that you hired another salesman. He said that it is in the tough moments like now that you need to make a bold move, not a conservative one. He is all on board and congratulates you for your courage. He sincerely cares about your business and it makes me feel even more close to him as my President. Know that you are in many prayers!

I´m so out of the loop on sports, and it´s probably a good thing, but I feel quite detached… I´m afraid I don´t even remember what a lateral is… oh no! Enjoy the super bowl especially the yummy chili dip with cream cheese and nachos… oh my mouth is watering… and shrimp too… all sauteed in butter.

Mommy, could you possibly try and find out what church songs have already been translated into Spanish and compiled into albums. For example; I know that, He Hears Me has been, and Roman Soldiers and His Hands… can you try to explore about that? They´re not all approved, but I bet I could get them approved if I knew they existed. I don´t know where to recommend you begin, but surely there is some church store that knows.

So yeah, tomorrow is the Sisters´s Conference and the biggest blessing of all is that we are going to the temple! It is a tender mercy of the Lord because this transfer has been so hard and more than any other thing I wanted to go to the temple, but it´s not a temple transfer (the next one is). But the sisters get to go and when Sis. Benton called to tell me, I just about cried! I am going to soak it all in like a sponge and leave feeling full again.

In the states the people are more ashamed to admit that they are seeing a psychiatrist. Here it is like a form of bragging about how bad your life is. It´s like everyone is excited to tell us that they have to go to the psychologist… it always surprises me because that isn't something we brag about in the states. Interesting, eh?

Well then, this week I studied a ton in the New Testament and who knew that there was so much great stuff in there..lol! I compiled some of my favorites and encourage you all to look over them when you get the chance:

Romans 15:30-33 – this is like the prayer of any missionary.
1 Cor. 4:9 – welcome to the mission!
1 Cor. 14:18-19 – I feel like this sometimes… I have about 5 words, but it could be better than thousands
1 Cor. 16:13 – check foot note D – be strong!
2 Cor. 3:17 – I love this… I recently studied Christ as our "deliverer" and learned a ton
2 Cor. 4:8-9 – we are not abandoned, even though we are tried! Remember that… never abandoned.

Other miracles of the week… I´m still SCABIES-free! I am learning a lot and praying more than ever. I am humbled each and every time I beg for advice and help. I really do believe that I have become incredible patient… I still have my moments when I slip, but for the most part… I take things quite well and in stride. You´d be so proud.

I directed the area and took 2 colectivos without problems when I was on splits with Hermana Farias who is still really young… so even if they take Hermana Roy away from me in 2 weeks, I have faith that I am sufficiently capable in the area leading it. But I have a feeling that we are staying together another transfer. I really hope so… she is so awesome and teaches me so much!

Say "hola" to everybody and tell them all that I wish them the best 2009 possible. I am really loving the mission, even the hard times because I know they are making me stronger. Sometimes I think that I could not possibly get much stronger, but then I am humbled to learn that I can… because there is always another challenge around the corner, but we face them with faith and rely on the Lord. He makes this work possible.

I pray for you guys and all my friends back home and can´t wait to give you a big hug in about 10 months, but until then there is much to be done! I love you tons!

Thanks so much for everything. I love you more than words can express and can´t believe that this adventure is all really happening.

Sometimes I look at the clouds and stop and think,
"Hey, I´m in ARGENTINA!"

I love you more than a million Swedish fish!
Hermana Jensen

World's Finest Sermons

A Haven in a World of Turmoil
Vaughn J. Featherstone
June 1, 1987

The season of the world before us will be like no other in the history of mankind. Satan has unleashed every scheme, every blatant, vile perversion ever known to man in any generation. Just as this is the dispensation of the fulness of times, so it is also the dispensation of the fulness of evil. We and our wives and husbands, our children, and our members must find safety. There is no safety in the world; wealth cannot provide it, enforcement agencies cannot assure it, membership in this Church alone cannot bring it.
As the evil night darkens upon this generation, we must come to the temple for light and safety. In our temples we find quiet, sacred havens where the storm cannot penetrate to us. There are hosts of unseen sentinels watching over and guarding our temples. Angels attend every door. As it was in the days of Elisha so it will be for us, "Those that be with us are more than those that be against us."
Before the Savior comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time when even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within these walls. The Saints will come here not only to do vicarious work, but also to find a haven of peace. They will long to bring their children here for safety's sake.
I believe we may well have living on the earth now or very soon the boy or babe who will be the prophet of the church when the Savior comes. Those who will sit in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are here. There are many in our homes and communities who will have apostolic callings. We must keep them clean, sweet, and pure in an oh so wicked world.
There will be greater hosts of unseen beings in the temple. Prophets of old as well as those in this dispensation will visit the temples. Those who attend will feel their strength and feel their companionship. We will not be alone in our temples.
The covenants and ordinances will fill us with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction, and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees. We will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm, we will mount up as on eagles' wings, we will be lifted out of the insane and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun and as clear as the moon.
The Savior will come and honor His people. Those who are spared and prepared will be a temple loving people. They will know Him. They will cry out "Blessed be the name of He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Thou art my God and I will bless Thee, thou art my God and I will exalt thee."
Our children will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears and He will weep and bless them for having suffered through the greatest trials ever known to man. His bowels will be filled with compassion and His heart will swell wide as eternity and He will love them. He will bring peace that will last a thousand years and they will receive their reward to dwell with Him.
Let us prepare them with the faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in these holy, sacred temples. Come, come, oh come up to the temples of the Lord and abide in His presence.

And Now For Something Silly!

A huge THANK YOU! goes out to Elder Gilmore's dad, Mike for making this skit, "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" available! (once again posted at the bottom) It does our hearts good to see these hard working missionaries laughing and having a good time so far from home at Christmas time!

Feliz Cumpleaños To Davy!

Yeah for Davy! I LOVE the photo collage of him and I can´t wait to see all the pictures that have been taken of that little kid since I´ve been gone! Happy Birthday precious, cute little boy!

I know, in one short quick month I will be at the half way mark!

This week has been a tough one. Ok, does there really have to be opposition in ALL things? The answer is yes, but I wish it was "opposition in most things until Sister Jensen just can´t take it anymore and then I will send a family of 12 a knocking on OUR door begging us to teach them." Or something like that. Allow me to vent a sec and just get it over with… if I have to endure many more weeks like the last one, I just might just.....well, you get the idea. It was so tough and so fruitless. UGH! And I´m not even just talking about the numbers. Almost everything went wrong and we lost the only two married couples we had to teach!

Would someone please give me a run down on the process of getting a divorce in the states. Basically I want to know how much it costs, how long it takes, and what the biggest obstacles are. Divorces here are about as hard to achieve as is admission to Harvard Law school.

In Zone Conference the area doctor came and told us a thousand things that just made me have stress. And he told us that we´re not allowed to take herbs because they are too risky because there can be up to 5000% difference from one pill to the next from the same bottle of how much of the ingredient each pill really has in it. I'm not worried because I know that Nature's Sunshine has the highest quality of processing and I received permission to continue taking mine for kidney stone prevention.

I gave a talk in church the other day and it went well...beings it was in Castellano, and a General Authority (Elder Zivic – of the seventy who lives in our ward) was there. He stopped me after to tell me I had done a good job. Relief!

The other day we passed the carcass of a dead dog that is literally disappearing as the maggots eat him away. It´s funny because you see the fur that is becoming the ground and you know it´s a dog because his paws and skull are still 3-D. Don´t worry I took photos!

We found a turtle on the sidewalk the other day and stopped to take pictures and play with it. It is about the size of a quad scriptures and we decided we couldn´t leave him because he´d surely get run over by a car. So we took him to our neighbor that is our landlord and the bishop of another ward. They adopted her and named her Karla Stacey after our first names. They also o told us that they are endangered there.

Mommy: Can you send me the lyrics to "All my days" I want to translate it and try to sing it in Castellano. Thanks!Oh, if you were going to send me an envelope in the near future, could you throw in some eye makeup remover? I´m almost out and I can´t believe I only brought one. How dumb.

Jason- I remember the letter you gave me with advice about training.... unfortunately I got all ditsy and sent the letter home, so I don´t know what you´re advice was on the subject. Can you send it to me again?

Nata- I loved your letter and had a question about te echaremos… what does that mean? I know the numbers game is tough, but it´s amazing how you just have to play it.

Daddy – you´re right, I try to never let myself get tied up in the numbers and lose focus of what is most important. I know that would keep me from taking advantage of a teaching moment that might not come again. I wish I could say that there were some of those moments last week, but it would be a lie. I´m not even kidding… I don´t think a single person listened to us and understood the message.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: brace yourself… my companion has "sarna" (SCABIES!) But the GOOD news is I don´t. What a miracle! Even though it is highly contagious and we are together 24-7 and use the same hand towel in the kitchen and stuff like that… I have remained sarna free. It truly is a tender mercy of the Lord. Don´t think that I take it for granted.

The BAD on the other hand is I have some kind of stye or something under my left eye that I have been treating with vaseline and neosporin… it seems to be going away, but isn´t very pretty. I also have a reaction on my neck that is a result from the gel that sprung a leak and got all over me as it left my cool neck cooler. So now my skin is getting over that. I doesn´t hurt or itch or anything, it´s just UGLY.

I learned that next to the cans of tuna in the grocery store there are similar cans of Jurel. Whatever that is. I bought some because it´s cheaper and it´s almost as good as tuna. When we get back at the end of the day and are starving I open up a can, add some salt and mayo and eat it by the spoonful. You should try it.

I am curious about something. I bet you all think that my Castellano is just honky dory and that I understand all that is going on and can always communicate with the people. I just thought you should know that that is my fantasy, but not the reality. I cannot believe that I have been in this country almost 6 months and still have serious problems with understanding and being understood. It gets to me sometimes because I remember being promised when I was set apart that "I would understand the people, and they would understand me." When will that prophesy be fulfilled… as I´m boarding the plane to come home? Please excuse my frustration.

Yesterday I was almost bit by a dog. Translation… the dog charged out of the door of the woman I was talking to and went straight for my hand which rested next to my thigh. Before I could even react the dog was attempting to bite my hand. His slobber was on my hand and his teeth touched my skin, but the woman grabbed his collar and pulled him back before he penetrated the skin… but there is no doubt that he was going to bite me because I felt his teeth and thought to myself "uh, oh" It´s a real good thing he didn´t bite me because I would have had to go through the "just in case" procedure to find out if the dog and me then had rabies… so sayeth the doctor in his talk. Another tender mercy…

Mommy- I forget the name of the book, but you need to ask Hermana Benton about some book she showed us in her "first aid kit talk" because I´m sure it´s a book you´d love to read. I wrote down the title, but don´t have that paper with me, so ask her and let me know if you´ve already read it. She said it´s really good!

My new area Haedo #1 doesn´t yike me. My companion can testify that the people here just love blowing up on me. I seem to have a giant target on my back and they love to aim for the bulls eye. I try not to let it get to me, but you´d be surprised how you can be completely innocent of any wrong and yet the people are angrily venting on you about who knows what because you can´t understand what they´re saying to you, or why they are blaming you. It makes Hermana Roy mad that for no reason different things keep happening. I try to laugh it off, but after a half dozen times you just want to ask "what gives?" Like today… I swear the entire country woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

This area is without doubt way tougher than Castelar. Thanks for your prayers on behalf of Sophia. She is being really brave and has a practice baptism with the man that is going to baptize her tomorrow. Please pray extra hard that the practice goes well.

Ok, no more whining… don´t pay my complaints any heed. I will get over it, it was just a really demanding week. And allow me to tell you the two worst parts: Anamaria – convert of 5 months back who is a doll and came back to church after a month or so of being inactive… told us that she is not going to continue with the church and that she "is choosing another path" which is to not attach herself to any church. It was like being dumped by your boyfriend and then of course the "we can still be friends" because she said she will keep receiving us and let us visit her, but she will not commit to anything. What really hurts is knowing that her 9 year old daughter that also got baptized now has little hope of staying active because who is going to take her to church? We are going to try to make arrangements, but even still… they have plans to move in a few months and she will probably fall through the cracks. We cried. It was awful because being the senior companion… and being that my companion was not in a condition to speak (crying much more than me) it fell to me to respond after she delivered her "I´m leaving your church" explanation. She told us not to be sad, and not to cry and what left my mouth was "it is impossible not to be sad because it´s hard to watch someone we love distance herself from the truth… because there was at least one moment that you knew this church is true." Anyway… that is reason number one.Reason number 2 – that SAME DAY… about 6 hours later we got a phone call and found out that the ex – husband of the mother and father of the 13 year old daughter that both got baptized two days before I got transferred into the area… had died… just died… probably heart attack, the autopsy hasn´t come back yet. The next day we went to visit her and basically cry with her and it was rough, but what did my heart good was to see the RS Pres. come with food and a shoulder to cry on and then accompanied her the next day to take care of all the paper work and stuff at the viewing place. The church is such a great support system… it really is a miracle that this happened just after she got baptized because if not… she would have had basically no one besides the few members of the family to help her get through this.

Anyway, all things will pass. I´m ready to have a better week! The week started off with an adventure which I cannot do justice to tell you in an email, so you´ll have to remember to ask me about the story about the water spraying at me from the wall in the bathroom. It is a great story, but I´ll have to draw pictures and explain them as I tell you the story. Basically it was so funny that we all ended up laughing… even the complete stranger woman that took pity on me and let us use her bathroom… that I then flooded! Good times!

The take home message is… even if some of the stories in this email leave you feeling sorry for me… stop it. It´s my problem, my stress, my adventure. Not yours. Don´t worry about me, just keep praying for me to be tough and then even tougher when things are blowing up in my face and not a single soul wants to be saved. I´m happy, I´m protected, I´m cared for, I´m not alone. I am doing my best and growing. I volunteered for this…. "I signed up for this" Never fear!I love you with all my heart and pray for you daily!

Hermana Stacey Wacey Jensen!

Sister Missionaries And Hermana Benton!

Hermana Luna, Benton, Greenland and Johns

Hermana Roy (Stacey's new companion)

Benton, Jensen and Lavigne

Año Nuevo!

Mission Christmas Party - 2008

The quality isn't so great, but here is a close
up of Stacey and Brittany just right of the Bentons

A New Year!

Flía is an abbreviation for familia. “menos mal” means like “thank heavens,” or “luckily.” Nata, thank you for be willing to read my letter to a one year old little boy! I just want him to know how much I love him. It´s funny of all the family I have days where I miss each of you the most… even little Davy! Does that make sense? There are days I miss Mommy most, Daddy most...etc. You all take turns being missed most by me.

I know it´s not for another week, but I´m afraid I´ll space it in my next email so here is a special shout out, sing out to mi sobriñito: “que los cumpla feliz, que los cumpla feliz, feliz cumpleaños a Davy… que los cumpla feliz”

Nata… remember back when we were little and you used to push all the fatty meat and skin off of your plate and onto the dinner table? Imagine being in the home of a member or investigator and they serve you asado and you have to pick at it in front of everybody trying to do a good job at eating lots of it, but there´s fat all over it. It´s like “oh no, they´re all watching me and I´m leaving lots of meat there because I don´t want to eat the fat.” Daddy wouldn't mind it too much and just eat...but I cajn´t!
One of the constant battles one faces as a missionary is the attempt to “give hope to the hopeless.” Ponder that and then tell me if you think it can be done. Unfortunately I am coming to the conclusion that only on very rare occasions can it be accomplished. I wish I could....but because of agency I cannot quit smoking for Paula and Romina nor can I go to the city registrars office to take out a wedding date for Vanessa, Pamela, or Lorena. I cannot wake up and go to church for Yudith and Sergio or Ricardo and Jorgelina. I can pray for them...but not as them. I cannot read for them, they have to do it. We cannot walk the path for them that we show. There are so many people that are so close, and yet so far from being able to get baptized. It´s the little things. Alma 37 – or is it 36… I don´t have my LDM with me.

So I suppose we are all insanely vane and worldly in the states… did you know that most people here get like one Christmas gift here? Like a toy… and not even a very awesome expensive one. Christmas here is more like a party to light fireworks and eat asado (serious BBQ). So just in case you were wondering... the question “what did you get for Christmas” is not a part of their vocabulary… they would probably have an answer and say the one thing they got, but it wouldn´t be the question they would expect you to ask them.

A story from back when I was in Castelar… that Daddy will get a kick out of and will make Mommy mad at me. One night with Hermana Johns we were heading to the bus stop to take the colectivo back home and I knew that if we stayed at this stop it´s 30 cents more (in US a DIME!) but if we walk 2 or 3 blocks it´s 30 cents cheaper. Before you get on a soap box to judge me allow me to remind you that it is INSANELY difficult to obtain change in this country and we can only go to the bank once a week. If you run out of change on Wednesday you walk until the following Tuesday. Or you spend a lot of unnecessary money to buy lots of alfajores to get 25 cents change every time you pass a kiosc… don´t even think about asking for change… they´ll laugh in your face and slam the window. Anyway… I looked over my shoulder and couldn´t see the colectivo coming for at least 5 blocks, so I thought we´d speed walk to the next stop to save our change. Well my gamble didn´t pay off, in between this stop and the next one came the colectivo. We started to run to the following stop, but didn´t make it. My mistake and pride made us miss the colectivo and have to wait for the next one about 10-15 minutes. And all that to save a dime a piece. Can you believe that? Well, did you laugh? I did… after a few minutes of saying “what are the odds!”

Mommy- of course it was the directions to the church I was getting the map from! Do you think I would ever agree to meet a stranger in Argentina? I wujn´t so don´t worry one little bit. Hna. Benton told me you wrote to tell her the e-mail address I had given you to request the maps from was incorrect. She got me special permission to search a website and look for colectivo maps. These malditio colectivos (that´s like saying those darn colectivos) are just about making me crazy. The drivers aren't very helpful and tell you they don´t go where you are sure they go and they come like every 30 minutes and we waste lots of time and… I never thought I´d say it but I miss the colectivos in Castelar! Oh, they were a dream. But the apartment here makes up for it!

I don´t know why it took me 22 years to learn that I LOVE tomatoes! Did you know that here they call a “salad” a bowl of quartered tomatoes with oil and salt… and it´s delicious! I was going to wait and surprise you by making you this salad when I get back, but I figured I wouldn´t be selfish and that I could just tell you about it now. So picture this… your youngest daughter is spooning a heaping pile of tomatoes on her plate and eating them all and going back for more… I confess I add more salt… even though the kidney stone paper says not to, but it´s my rebellion… it´s so yummy!

And now for the story of the week. We took out a baptismal date (that just doesn´t translate well at all) with a 9 year old girl –Sofia- who is special… she is the daughter of a member that was less active… the sister missionaries reactivated the mom and tried to baptize the daughter who was then 8 but she had a panic attack in the water and didn´t submerge. She was hysterical and would not be baptized again. They tried a few weeks later, and she wouldn´t do it. She has a phobia that is quite real about drowning. We promised her that if she asked Heavenly Father in each and every prayer until the 18th of January to take away her fear of water that she would be able to be baptized. Last Sunday there was a baptism of an 8 year old boy and she stayed to watch. As he entered the font she became very upset and saying, I don´t want to get baptized.” BUT 15 minutes later was saying that she wanted to be baptized and was telling us what songs she wanted on the program at her baptismal service. Right after this we went to eat lunch at her house and she came right up to us and said “the 18th, I´m getting baptized” and we hadn´t even said a word about it because we figured it wasn´t gonna happen. So we sat her down and with her mom and grandma and cousin talked about the options… doing a practice baptism before hand and getting a blessing first. I do not know if she will be baptized, but she is basically our only hope of a convert this transfer… even though our goal was 2… we´ll be lucky to get 1. We are in the process of receiving special permission from Pres. Benton to do a special baptism where she doesn´t have to put her head under the water… this can be arranged for special exceptions like the elderly and others like Sofia that literally cannot bring themselves to lie back into the water. We hope to attain said permission. But it´s really up in the air.

I´ll give better detailed reports on those who progress this week in next weeks email. Please include Sofia in your prayers. Remember the story of the little boy who brings lunch to his daddy working in the well and the daddy tells him to jump into the darkness and that he will catch him and the little boy has faith to do it… Sofia is working on getting that faith. She is special. Please pray for her to feel comfort and faith and know that everything will be okay.

I love you all so much. I was sad to hear about the cougs lost, but will surely overcome. Enjoy the snow and well done on bearing your testimonies like I challenged you both too!
It does my heart good to hear it!

With all my love,
Wace
Hermana Jensen!

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2 comments:
ajohns37 said...
Yea! I just noticed. (I'm not the brightest!) that I can make comments again. You just have to approve them. For anyone who reads this, I am Barbara Johns, the mom of Hermana Brittany Johns, Stacey's former companion. This blog spot, along with Hermana Jensen, and mom Karen, have been some of the greatest blessings to come to our family these last few months. Alan, my husband and Brittany's dad, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last month. He had his thyroid removed and this Friday will have the last step and get radioactive iodine to make sure all cancer is gone. Our oldest daughter had this 5 years ago. It's a cancer with a high cure rate, but the steps going through it are very hard. Stacey was just the companion Brittany needed at the time and I consider Karen one of my best friends even though we've never met because of their tremendous love and support. We have turned on this blog spot at times to listen to the inspirational music, videos, read the thoughts, Argentina info,scriptures, articles and see the pictures. With love and gratitude, The Johns family

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Natalie Pyles said...
This blog is so cute! I wish my house were decorated just like this!

Nata

January 8, 2009 10:38 AM

What A Phone Call That Was!

The lights at the Salt Lake Temple

December 30, 2008

Well, I´m a little curious to know if the Christmas call left you all the way it left me. I tried not to let it make me homesick, but I´d have to admit that it did just a tiny bit. Hearing your voices was great, but after I hung up it dawned on me that I did most of the talking and so I didn´t take advantage of the opportunity to listen. Bummer.

I meant to make sure to talk directly to everyone for at least a sec, but the 40 minutes flew by just like the last 7 months have flown. I had planned to start the phone call by breaking into song "I just called to say I love you," But I didn´t do it because when Daddy answered the phone I didn´t want to just start before mom got on the other line, and then when you two were there, we waited to get Nata on and by then I forgot. But pretend that I sang to y'all k?

I also meant to bear my testimony to you guys in Castellano on the phone, but when it came right down to it, I knew that only Nata would be able to understand it and I didn´t want to be selfish and use some of the time saying something that would mean nothing to the rest of you. But don´t worry you´ll hear it after my talk in Sacrament Meeting...what a day that will be!

Nat, I meant to ask you to get Davy to make some sounds... I wanted to hear his little noises and tell him I love him. But, I guess I should be more than pleased with how the phone call went down. Mainly because the conference call worked! Thank you for making it possible to talk to you all at the same time! That really made the call special.

Just send whatever Motab cds you have accummulated. I don´t know off hand what I already have.

Mini stories: Sometimes when I´m walking down the street with my comp and the sun is beating down upon us we have little drops of sweat that roll down our scalp, basically all over our heads. Unfortunately it is almost the exact same sensation as when a bug is crawling in your hair. Which it really could be‑‑because we walk under trees all the time and lots of times giant ants get stuck in our hair. So we have to learn to discern between sweat in our hair and bugs in our hair. Both are highly gross!

At midnight on Christmas Eve we were woken up as every Argentine in the Country sent up their own firework show, the good kind that are illegal and all. You looked out the window and in 8 different parts of the sky there were fireworks, but it wasn´t that cool really because they weren´t set to music and one went off every 30 seconds. But still. It was loud! They sure love their fireworks here!

On Christmas day we did all of our street contacts differently. I wanted to sing a hymn as a Christmas carol to the contacts and then try to teach them. It didn´t result in a single lesson or new investigator, but about 8 contacts let us sing to them. It was fun, and different, but weird to be Christmas caroling in such awful heat!

Instead of mowing the lawn most people just cut their grass with an edger. Interesting. And those that do have lawn mowers just have mini ones. I sent a picture of one back home to you. The rotating blade is about the radius of a small pizza instead of a blade.

Just about every day people wet down their driveways here. I have no idea why. They fill up bucket after bucket of soapy water and throw it on the driveway and stairs and then they sweep it all around. I don´t get it because if this country is so humid (and it is!) why are they wetting it down all the time? I´d just let things stay dry when they finally were dry. Maybe it's because they want their driveway cleaner...pine sol fresh and all, but it's outside the house! But yeah, it never ceases to amaze me that we pass people doing this all day long!

If you are stopped at a traffic light waiting for your turn to go, you are NOT waiting for green, you are waiting for yellow. It goes yellow, green, then yellow again before red. Which is really funny because I remember playing "red light, green light" as a kid and I always did that. I started with yellow which meant "you can start going, but slowly" and then someone told me that that wasn´t how the lights worked so I stopped, and now we know that I was right all along! I just thought I was already living in Argentina. Funny, huh?

I thought that any area map would be better than the map of Castelar, but I have now learned that every area has issues. For example the streets have names and numbers to express what part of the street just like in the states. We live at 3683 it´s the same here and all the streets that run parallel to Salinas will have the same number system. So the house that is exactly where ours is but one street south will probably also have the number of 3683 or thereabouts. Are you with me? Unfortunately that does not always work here. In our area there is a street that has numbers of 500‑600 on that block and if you go one street further but still parallel, the numbers are 1100‑1200 on that block! So you can´t just assume that it´s one block south because it might be one block south and 12 blocks East even though the number indicates that it should be just right there. Talk about frustrating! Also there are these little spots of twilight zone going on where one sign says "Don Bosco 1900‑2000" So you walk that street and THE VERY NEXT SIGN ON THE VERY NEXT BLOCK says "Don Bosco 2800‑2900" doo‑doo‑doo‑doo! Where did those 8 blocks go? It´s pretty trippy and there is no rhyme or reason to it.

It is a very difficult time to work because everyone and their dog is leaving for vacation. And not just see you in a week vacation‑ they´ll be back at the end of February, which is in the next transfer! Every time we have a half‑decent lesson with someone they proceed to tell us that we can come back in 2 months. UGH!

I got the package from the YW yesterday and we will be eating the mashed potatoes and gravy in about an hour! I´m super excited! Thanks for the treats and the letters and the cool photos you sent. There were 3 collages of our family--who were they for? I gave one to Hermana Roy, but I didn´t know what your vision was. Either way they are way cool!

I found out on Sunday that they added 'virtue' and felt very inspired to write you something to read to the young women...even before I received the package and before you wrote me about it.

Hello! I´m so happy that virtue is now one of the Young Women values! When I heard I got all excited and thought about how essential it really is. Moroni 9:9 says that virtue is the most precious-- and it really is. The hymn "Dearest Children God is Near You" reminds one and all that we must "cherish virtue." I could not be more certain that the application of this new young women value will bring lasting happiness to our lives!

I am serving in a world where very few people cherish their virtue and they are all suffering the consequences of it. It is my hope and prayer that each of you will embrace with open arms this new value and strive daily to develop the highest level of virtue in your lives. Carefully protect your virtue. Don´t let music, television, movies, books, magazines, facebook, myspace, or anything attack and destroy your virtue. What you fight your entire life to protect can be lost in just a minute. Never let that happen to you! I know that as we pray and live to develop virtue, we will be truly "called to know the richness of His blessings."
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mom.. will you read that out loud to them. I felt impressed to share that with them. Thank you!

Daddy‑ it´s all good, I don´t think I´ll be needing to drive the Taurus this week anyway so don't worry about shoveling the whole driveway for three cars! Sorry there´s so much to do. I wish I could be there to shovel the snow at your side and then retreat for a mug of hot cocoa in paradise!

Jason ‑ I´m sad I didn´t get to speak with you specifically on Christmas. I hope that when I call home for Mother´s day in like 6 months we will all be able to talk better! I love you tons and hope that you find joy in every day.

Nata ‑ thanks for your love. The pix of Davy drinking from a cup are precious! You said he´s crawling, right? I hope you are showing him pictures of me everyday so that he will "come to me" when I get home, but it´s ok....I promise not to force the little guy!

Mommy ‑ thanks for everything. You are amazing. I look forward to reading your Sacrament talk. I printed it so that I could have more time today to write you guys. I´ll be sending all my praise about it next week!

Sorry I cried a little bit when we were hanging up the phone‑‑it´s a girl thing.

Hermana Johns left on Friday and is in Castelar with her mini missionary. Today she will be getting a phone call from the President telling her the results about her Dad. I´m praying tons and tons for her and miss her so!

Can you send up a few special prayers for me and my companion? This area is really a lot to handle. We can work 6 straight hours and not teach a single soul. It wears you down FAST. I´m pleading with the Lord to lead us to those who are ready. We know they are here, we just don´t know where. I want so much to have success. I want so much to teach what I know. Just being in the street isn´t what I came for. The rejection starts to take its toll and it´s easy to get frustrated. We are working hard, but are having challenges. Please pray for me personally to toughen up and not give in. I need to be an example for her. I need to lead with faith and excitement. I need to not let it get to me. Please pray for us to find people, pray for us to find them-- and for them to listen!

I love you all and will never give up. Don´t let the last paragraph make you sad or worry. I am in this area because the Lord called me here. I do not deny it. I will learn and work and be better for it.

Hermana Jensen!