Hermana Jensen: Mission Updates: Sep 16, 2009

9.15.09

Holy cow your letters were super awesome this week!

I have so many little things to say, so we´ll start with the random answers to all your comments and questions part.

Mom – thanks for the John Travolta pictures... They are great!

This is way late, but... thanks for sending me the birthday shout outs. I really enjoyed reading them. Thanks for being so kind and rounding them up.

Nata – Davy says my name??? YES! Does he say “Stacey” or “Sister Jensen?” lol!

Daddy – we actually did get off the bus at the right stop... we found out a week too late. The bus driver had told us the truth... it was the men in the mill that told us we were in the wrong place. Anyway, there is a purpose for all things and tomorrow we are going to teach all the non-members of the new convert that lives there in the middle of nowhere. We have great plans to baptize his wife and 2 sons ASAP. Please include them in your prayers... the family Almeyra! Gracias!

Mom - Sister Benton said that my second set of tests came back good, but that the doctor recommends I get it checked periodically throughout my life because of my history. For now... no worries!

What was in the box? 40 Book of Mormons... and they´re bigger in Castellano. Bigger pages and about 63 more of them. I was dying and when I got back to the pench I literally collapsed!

Random stories from the week:

We went for a second appointment with this woman who lost her only baby about 3 months ago and she couldn´t let us in to teach her because she explained that her family had come and they were having some kind of family meeting about something. It was easy for me to infer that it was either some kind of intervention with someone or some economic crisis. So I respectfully said, “no problem” and offered my hope that all would resolve itself and we set another appointment. The funny part of this story is that my companion still doesn´t understand more than about 40% of what is going on around us. She heard and understood the words “family” and “meeting” and thought they were having some kind of a party. As I was offering encouragement and saying that it will all work out and be ok... she was jumping in the conversation saying “how cool!” It was like. Oooh... she doesn´t understand, but I can´t just stop right here and tell her that the family is in crisis... what do I do? Maybe she´ll just say it once and let it go. NOPE. She kept saying it like 3 times, every time I tried to change the subject and get out of there. As we turned the corner I explained to poor Sister Godfrey what the woman was saying and we had a good laugh about it. Ah, the joys of the language gap. You think you´re doing fine, and then you realize you´re a total idiot (I´m referring to myself back in the day... not to my companion). Gotta love it!

The thing about serving in campo is that it teaches you PATIENCE. I had already developed a great deal of patience, but I have some room to grow still. We spend a TON of time on trains going to meetings. District Development meeting every Tuesday, Zone conference and Interviews with the president once a transfer. Our last trip to the temple today (which is why our p-day is today and not yesterday... sorry for not letting you in on that... I bet you were all anxious and confused yesterday when I didn´t write. Shorry!) Anyway, we spend a ton of time in a train with a pair of body guard Elders. I try to use the time to make English cards for our little English students, but it´s a bumpy ride. So there is lots of lost time in travel, but such is life, and that´s all there is, so you just learn to accept it and get over it. I think it is pretty interesting that I am dying in an area where you inevitably lose so much time. Just when I´m all urgent with time running out and feel like “I have to baptize the whole world before I go home”....and I´m in a train or a bus – all day long! There is a lesson to be learned in every daily experience. Remember that.

In Zone Conference the Zone Leaders played “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” teaching us how to teach better on our feet according to the situation and how to ask better questions. I was up against Elder Gilmore playing the “you can only ask questions game” about the temple and eternal families and it was so fun.

This week as a giant family and missionaries, we did a special fast for the dad of the Miguez family who isn´t a member yet. The wife and 6 of the 7 children and all their spouses and grandchildren are members, but he isn´t yet. We fasted together and made a book and had all the family members write their testimonies in it. We committed him to come to church and we prepared all week long to sing a special musical number to really help him feel the spirit. We sang in Acappella – the first verse of ‘Families Can Be Together Forever’ in English, second verse in Castellano then we went straight into ‘This is the Christ’ in Spanish with a gorgeous harmony. The Spirit was super strong and I think it´s still working on him to help him see. It was a big project and we are waiting to see the fruits. I prayed with a lot of faith that this miracle will really happen... I´m not just hoping for it, I´m counting on it.

So _____ is going to be baptized this Saturday and for a minute there her mom was going to be baptized with her, but something got in the way. Then during the lesson when she told us about what had happened she said, “on September 19th, my daughter will be baptized, and so will I.” Talk about someone not letting obstacles slow them down. She said that she felt the Spirit so strong in church and she is going to be baptized too. So we got permission to baptize her with just 2 attendances and then she didn´t show up on Sunday (for the 2nd one). We went to go and get her, but she didn´t answer the door. She was too embarrassed and didn´t want to be seen in church, so her date fell. We are still working hard with her about the Sabbath Day, but we will be seeing progress soon. Anyway, even with all that happened it didn´t stop her from wanting to be baptized. With patience, she will make it.

Daddy – in the ward in Utah does the bishopric take note of every person that bears their testimony on Fast Sunday? They do here and it seemed like a new thing to me. I´m curious if we do that there too.

So brace yourself... President Benton was robbed at gun point last week. This group of men stopped him, forced him out of the $55,000 mission car and robbed him of his cell phone, his mission folders and other stuff, his GPS, and his watch. They let him keep his wallet and his life and we are very grateful. The story made me feel so woken up again that we are in a very bad world. He was fine, and he even told the thieves about the gospel in the 45 minute drive with them as he was being held at gun point. He is such a great man. I tell you... if he had been hurt... it would be really tough for me. But the Lord protected him and I prayed with such gratitude that night for still having a mission president.

On Sunday it looked like we weren´t going to have anyone in church because all the investigators went AWOL on their commitments and I was devastated. We had been preparing this song and praying and fasting and we were going to have to sing it for only the ward members, but the Lord showed me that this is His work and that if He wants investigators in church, He will put them there. Two husbands of sisters that are members showed up -Osvaldo Miguez, I already talked about him, and Marcos whose wife is a new convert – who has SO MUCH POTENTIAL and then Lara, of course, and then the son of Carlos Almeyra came. I was reminded Who is in charge. Even though we had tons more that didn´t show up, we had 4 and they felt the Spirit. It was a really stretching experience for me.

I think we just might have found a family in Villars. The thing is the night before we planned to visit a former investigator named Fernanda. There was just a little flag on the map with her name on it. We had no clue who she was. The next morning I was reading former investigator teaching records and read about some woman who was named Fernanda (but it didn´t occur to me that it was the same woman) and I thought, “wow, we have got to go for her!” So we were in Villars and I looked over to the next house and through a bunch of tall weeds I saw a mom, dad, and son sitting in their backyard. We crossed the little field to go and contact them, and they let us sit down and teach them. At the very end of the lesson it dawned on me that she was Fernanda – the same one. I was like, “wow, the Lord sent us to this family in 3 different ways today... they have got to be the family I´m here to baptize.” They have 4 sons – 3 of which are over 8 years old. I really hope that they progress. I just felt so sure that the Lord had totally put us there to teach them.

Well, the hour is almost gone already.

I´m not trunky, but I am emotionally tired...and for the first time in my mission we didn´t hit our 140 contacts. Things are just different in campo... there aren´t that many people to talk to, and we have already talked to most of them--and they don´t like being contacted twice. So I made a new promise with the Lord, that I won't worry about all the numbers anymore, but that I would teach with my heart. All I can say is that I will do this work to the very best of my ability and the way the Spirit tells me to do it.

I have to run. We are off to the temple for my last session as a missionary. I have a lot of revelation to receive!

Love you so much!

Be happy, read your scriptures, say your prayers, have FHE and share the gospel with someone who doesn´t know it this week.

Las Heras rocks! I am living each day and seeing miracles and being incredibly blessed!

Love ya,