Wacky Week!

 

Hello everyone! How's life? This week was good! Last Monday we got to do some fun P-day activities with some other missionaries which was great, and we got to today too! We got to go to Enger Tower which is a super pretty lookout place and canal park which was fun, and then today we were able to play spikeball and frisbee and such. It was great! 

Sorry I gotta make this quick but Thursday I went on an exchange with Sister Pryor, and Saturday I went with Sister Pearl! Normally we don't have them that close together except things have been kinda weird and we have transfers next week. They were both great though! This week we found a new person named Tomika, who we are going to bring a BOM to in a few days. It'll be good! 

This week we have a mission tour with Elder Gifford Neilson and I'm super excited for it! 

A lot else happened but I can't remember it at the moment... I hit my six months. Which means I am 1/3 of the way done with my mission. Which is not okay. Weird stuff. 

Spiritual thought for the week: Did everyone get a chance to watch Pres. Nelson's devotional? If you haven't, watch it. If you have, great! Watch it again. So fire. Remembering who we are as children of our Father in Heaven and what we are here to do makes all the difference. 

Anyway, I love you all! Let me know how things are going! And I actually have pictures! Aren't you proud?? 

 

Mexican Bingo!

 

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Whether or not you are a mother, Mother’s Day is a great time to remember the amazing influence we have on others! I know all of you have impacted my life so much in some way or another and I am so blessed to know all of you! I hope you had a great Mother’s Day and a great week! I know mine was good, although a little weird haha. 

Wednesday, we found out that one of our friends may or may not actually be a member...so we'll see how that goes! We haven't found his records yet, but we'll keep looking!

Thursday was fun! We were going to be meeting one of our friends for lunch at this place but when we went everyone was talking about pancake day and there was a sign and everything and we were like "what is pancake day??" But then our friend showed up and we got pancakes! It was a fundraiser thing, and it was just funny cause we had no idea what was going on. Thursday night was a relief society party for Cinco de Mayo that we helped out with, so that was super fun! We played Mexican Bingo! My poor companion has a Spanish last name (Martinez) and so everyone asks if she knows Spanish and starts speaking Spanish to her, but she most definitely isn't Mexican so it's just super funny. 

Saturday, we drove out to Silver Bay for a service project which was fun, we cleaned an oven. It is about an hour away, so we did a bunch of stopbys on the way back in Two Harbors! We also had a phone call lesson with our friend Noah who is like super golden and wants to keep learning! Except he may or may not be in high school, so we'll have to check with him on that haha. It was fun though! 

This week has been sunny, and it's been SO nice! It has still been kind of cold, but I mean I've gotten sunburned a few times haha. Don't worry Mom I bought Aloe Vera gel! 

Spiritual thought for the week: This week I studied a bit about the man who Jesus healed who was born blind. After this occurrence, the pharisees tried to interview him and trick him with their words and make him doubt himself. They accused the Savior of being a devil. The man replied, "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." The man was willing to ignore the adversary and look at the results and fruits of what the Savior actually did. He was excommunicated for this testimony. Later, the chapter (John 9) states, "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him." Do not let questions or doubts unravel your sure knowledge, even if it may be small. Trust the Savior and the fruits of living His gospel. After all, it is by living His gospel that conversion occurs.

 

I Wanna See a Bear

How's everything going for everyone? As shown in the email title, there have been a lot of bears around! I haven't seen any, but I want to! One was right outside of my apartment one night, there were warning signs on all the doors the next day haha. I wanna see one though! 

Also don't put Cajun seasoning in your oatmeal. Mistakes have been made, and it really shouldn't have the same type of container as the nutmeg :)

This week has been good! Kind of a blur haha but it's been fun! My companion was able to play the violin at the funeral yesterday for the family that was killed, and that was really good! It was kind of a hassle getting permission and everything, but it turned out nicely. 

Yesterday we were able to have dinner at a member's house, and they had Sister Martinez bring her violin and they had us perform a little! He is an accompanist and whipped out a song for me to sing, it was a lot of fun. We also had a dinner appointment with a member who had a ton of different fancy drink flavors that you would mix with water. Like tons. They had a full MENU of drink mixes, most of which I couldn't even pronounce haha. I went adventurous and tried Italian Eggnog, Watermelon Habanero, and Ghost Pepper. I mixed the last two. It was exciting. 

We have a member who makes us homemade bread every week, and last week he made us English muffins. I think I was straight translated. 

We have had so many miracles in disguise this week, it's been so great! 

Spiritual thought for the week: All efforts to do anything begin with the desire. I have had times in my life where I have a hard time summoning the motivation to do much. But ultimately, if we wait for the desire to come before doing a specific action, we will never fully accomplish it to the extent that we could. But the good thing is: we can change our desires! Having our desires changed is part of the conversion process. Everyone faces it. But Jesus Christ provides hope that we can have "no more desire to do evil, but to do good continually." And for those times where it seems like there is just no motivation whatsoever, pray for it! The Lord wants to help you. He can give you the desire you need, although often we need to begin an action for the desire to come. Show the Lord that you are willing to commit to the inspiration you receive. He will give you the desire to continue going. Even if it takes a while, even through all the struggles, He is there for you. Do not lose faith in Him. 

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Let me know how you are doing!

Beer Coupons

This week was pretty good! Pretty wild! Last week we got a referral named Christian and he's awesome! We're meeting with him at the Bishop's house tomorrow and it's gonna be so good! 

On Saturday we did a garbage cleanup for Earth Day, it was fun but pretty cold and took 40 minutes longer than planned. Also one of the sponsors was a brewery, so in the goody bags they gave everyone there were lots of beer coupons, I found it hilarious :) 

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot lately is how the Lord preserves us in ways we don't even know. For example, last Wednesday we were going to have an in person lesson with a returning member when our joint teacher let us know that she had received an alert saying that an armed person who was having a mental breakdown was in that area. We ended up just doing the lesson over video chat, but it got me thinking...

 

     If we didn't have our joint teacher:

          -We wouldn't have known about the alert.

               -We would have gone earlier in the day, as it was currently happening.

                    -There typically aren't parking spots close, so we usually have to walk down a ways. 

We later found out that in this incident 5 people and one dog were killed. 

Sorry to make it all dramatic for all of you, I know that this is mild compared to other places. This kind of thing is extremely sad, but it's not a common thing here in Duluth. It just got me thinking a lot about how the Lord protects us in so many ways that we don't see. Never cease to thank Him. 

Other than that, this week was good! We were able to find 2 other people cold calling, and then Christian too! We also got to do more service which was fun :)

Spiritual thought for the week: Whether or not we receive miracles in our lives depends less on whether or not God has the ability to perform miracles on our behalf, and more on our faith. The Lord asks us to exercise faith as small as a mustard seed, but it must be pure and genuine faith. The quality of our faith matters more than the quantity. Lately I have been thinking about how we even know if our faith is of the right quality, and my answer for you who ponder this same question is to ASK THE LORD. He will answer you, and He will give you opportunities to strengthen your faith. Even if you don't know for sure, act until you can get to that point of faith! One thing my mission President's wife often says is "It takes courage to step into a place of devotion." I echo those words. 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Sorry I forgot to take pictures...whoops.

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A note from Sister Jensen's mom:  I received a very nice text and a couple of pictures from a family in Sister Jensen's area this morning who had the missionaries over for dinner. I am excited that she can finally have in-person dinner appointments! They also had the missionaries sign a guest book titled "10 things I am grateful for..."  Since she didn't have any pictures this week I asked Sister Jensen if I could add them to her letter!

Also, I was asked to speak in my ward on missionary work and so I asked Sister Jensen if she would send me a paragraph to share with the ward. Here it is!

Missionary life is wild. There's so many ups and downs. There is so much joy in seeing someone accept what you teach, and even just in finding someone new! It's also hard and disappointing to see people reject what could help their lives so much. I knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ was true before my mission. But since I have been here, my testimony has increased of the divinity of this work. It is directed by the Lord. There is absolutely no way any of the things we do as missionaries would be effective if this work wasn't run by God. Since I have been on my mission, I have gained a sense of urgency in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We often take our knowledge for granted and forget that there are people in the world who are living without the knowledge that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them, without the knowledge that they have a purpose here on earth. Recently we taught a man who described his situation as "going in a figure 8." He described himself as a wanderer. People need to know what we know! People need the hope that we find through Jesus Christ. This gospel is not an ethereal concept. It is not a vague idea that is simply used as an explanation for the world. It is tangible. It is concrete. God's plan for us is a physical plan with a concrete purpose, that has specific ordinances and covenants that we can hold on to in our journey back to our Father in Heaven. They help us become like Him, and that is His plan for us. And everyone needs to know this.

 

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you are all doing well! So many miracles this week. So many. But before I get into that, EVERYONE WATCH THIS MISSIONARY DEVOTIONAL BY ELDER BEDNAR. Absolute fire. Honestly, if I could straight up grab your face, shake it, and tell you to watch this devotional, I would. I'll make it easier for you and include the link! 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/missionary-devotionals-2021/2021-08-0260-elder-david-a-bednar-august-26-2021-1080p?lang=eng

Anyway, this week was so awesome! So many miracles! We have definitely been blessed over and over. In the past 2 weeks, we have found 6 people cold calling! So many of these people commented that we called right when they needed it, and they took it as a sign from God. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get in contact with a lot of them since, but we'll get there. So many miracles! 

Oh! We had transfers on Thursday, and Sister Martinez and I are staying here in Duluth! So that's fun, I'm happy about it! We did face and hair masks Wednesday night. On Thursday Sister Martinez and I were able to celebrate our half birthday together, which was fun. By celebrating, I mean we had french toast for breakfast. Friday was also my 5 monthiversarry which is so wild! I don't like that. But life is so good! 

We were able to contact one of our cold call guys, his name is North and he's so cool! Except during the call it randomly hung up (we still don't know why) and so we still haven't covered the Book of Mormon haha.

Easter was super fun! And snowy :) I'm ready for the summer. I have begun a summer strike, which is not something I ever thought would happen haha. We did an egg bash and Sister Martinez won with her egg named Louella. 

Spiritual thought for the week: In light of Easter, I just wanted to express my gratitude of the Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of His Atonement and Resurrection. I know that because of the Savior, we can experience hope, joy, and healing. We know that we can start over and change. We know that we can be with our loved ones again. Not everyone knows this. What might be stopping you from sharing this knowledge? 

 Also, I actually broke up my usually mega long paragraphs! Aren't you proud of me??

 

Twas a Good Week!

It's a low point when you somehow manage to get sunburned in Minnesota in April. My companion thought it was hilarious, haha! This week has been really good! We were able to surpass our finding goal for this week which has never happened to me before, so that was awesome! They were all found through cold calling. 

One thing that missionaries often do is post free copies of the Book of Mormon or Bible on our facebook groups. We had already done that with our groups, and wanted to come up with something more original to post, so my companion came up with the idea to ask for everyone's favorite hymns and then we could send a video of us singing or playing it! It was a cute idea, but it had a few unforseen holes, one of them being that other religions have very different hymns than ours, it was honestly hilarious, but I felt really bad that we had to message all of the people and try and find similar ones that were approved for missionaries. We were still able to get some songs sent out though! 

This weekend we also had Stake Conference, and President and Sister Richardson were able to come up to Duluth for it. They took us out for ice cream Saturday night, and then we were able to do interviews with President on Sunday which was really beneficial. They're so awesome. 

 This week was honestly kind of a blur :) And this coming week is transfers which is wild! It seriously just sneaks up on you! My companion and I are hoping to stay together and maybe get a third person, since there's a chance I will get put in a trio anyway. But you never know with President! It's exciting though! 

Spiritual thought for the week: I was privileged to meet with President for an interview yesterday. One thing he emphasized that I loved was the fact that any hard thing we go through that is out of our control will not hinder our eternal progress. God will always compensate and prepare a way, both after this life and in it. We are not going to miss out on eternal blessings due to something that is out of our control. If we are following God's will, our life experience is what He wants it to be for us. Trust that the Lord will prepare a way for you. In 1 Nephi 3:7, notice he never says, "I will go and do the things the Lord hath commanded but..." NO. The Lord will ALWAYS compensate. He will ALWAYS prepare a way for you. He won't leave you stranded. Sometimes it just takes a little extra faith. 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week :)  

General Conference

Hello everyone! I hope you had a fantastic week! General Conference was absolute fire. If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you saw it, watch it again. So good. My companion has a family tradition of having stuffed French Toast at general conference and my family has crepes, so we had both! Let me just say it was a dangerous weekend in the desserty breakfast department. Amazing though. One thing that was kinda rough was that even though we told everyone in the world about conference and reminded them all like 12 times, NONE of our friends watched it. So that was sad. It's all good though!

On the plus side, last night we were able to get our friend Edward on date for the 23rd! So that's super exciting! On Thursday we were able to do some service at a food shelf, and that was fun. Gotta love good old-fashioned work. I don't really know what else happened this week. We also did some service by making lasagnas for people, except then we couldn't get in contact with one of them, so we just ate it haha. I have a weakness when it comes to lasagna. On Tuesday we had our apartment inspected and then the senior missionaries took us out for lunch, they are super sweet! We also made homemade Reese’s peanut butter cups for a member's birthday, and a giant stacked one for ourselves. It was great. Sorry, this was all mega out of order :)

Fun story from today: Today when we put our trash in the dumpster my companion accidentally threw the keys in, and we spent a good while trying to get it out with a stick :) it was actually hilarious. But yeah!

Spiritual thought for the week: I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about the importance of moving forward and sacrificing what is blocking you from coming closer to God and consecrate the rest to Him. This is how to gain true happiness. This is how to gain lasting joy. This is how to guarantee yourself on the covenant path. It doesn't make life easy, but it makes life worth it. I would like to invite you all to find something to sacrifice to the Lord and find something to start doing that you can consecrate! 

 Anyway, I love you all and wish you the best week!