The Parable of the Washers and Dryers

Hello everyone! This has been a good week! We had a snowstorm and had to have gotten like three feet or something. It was all stacked against our window and looked really cool. We had my first church tour on Saturday, but Edward, the guy who we were giving it to, is quite the talker. Let's just say it took 2 hours and I think you get the idea :/ there was absolutely no way to get words in but next time we'll just give a very specific time limit! He told us he wants to come to church which is awesome! 

Oh oh! Guess who finally got their car! Yesterday we took a road trip to Silver Bay which is about an hour and a half away to visit a lady who we've heard is incredible and so so ready, but we haven't been able to get in contact with. We went and brought cookies, only to find out she had moved, which is kind of a rip. It's all good though! She'll find the gospel when she finds it. We were out there visiting some people when we found out one of our sisters who was supposed to leave Tuesday was actually leaving Monday! So, we zipped it back to spend a little time with them before they left.

The last few days haven't really gone according to plan at all but it's an adventure! As for the email title, last week we were doing laundry at the apartment and the laundry machines were being lame and not working! My trainer suggested we say a prayer, so we did. No sooner after we opened our eyes, the laundry machines worked! It testified further to me that the Lord cares about the little details of our lives! Fast forward to today, the laundry machines again refused to cooperate. We prayed that according to His will, and according to our faith, they would work! They didn't work. We went to a laundromat. 

This experience showed me that God cares about the little details of our lives, but He also wants us to have faith whether or not our will is the result. Always an important lesson to learn in life! Transfers are this week; I can't believe I've already been out for a transfer! There's a good chance I'll be staying here, which would be nice, but don't want to speak too soon! We cold called into someone last week who said she was putting her kids to bed and said 9 was a good time for her. A few days later we called her at 9 and yeah, she definitely meant 9 am. It was super awkward haha but we were able to teach her later and she is super awesome! Hopefully it goes somewhere :) 

Spiritual thought for the week: Lately I've been thinking a lot about the divinity of my calling as a missionary. Take advantage of the position you are in; we are so incredibly blessed to have the knowledge we have. We were all prepared to come to this earth in the premortal life. Sometimes I wonder what it would've been like if I had grown up in another country, in poverty, as an orphan. How far would that preparation take me? God has given you these situations for a reason. I have grown up in the gospel and had these blessings for a reason, for this privilege of being a deliverer of the knowledge that changes lives. 

Lately, being here, I wonder if the gospel is something I would recognize had I grown up differently. Every soul is precious unto God. He placed you in this position and gave you this information for a reason. What does He want you to do with it? Sorry if that doesn't make sense, it made sense in my head :) Love you all! Email me back! 

Snow on Snow on Snow

你好! This week was good, lots of ups and downs! I officially had my one-month-in-the-field-iversary on Saturday which is awesome! And I have less than 15 months left which is so wild. Anyway, we were able to find a new guy named John! He's so awesome, and we haven't found anyone in a long time, so it was really great! He was a gray dot, (someone who missionaries had contacted before, but he hadn't been taught) and we were texting everyone in the world happy Valentine’s Day, and he responded saying that he would call us the next day (Which he actually didn't but we got ahold of him later)! So that was exciting! He's so awesome! They restarted the second meeting of church in person which was awesome.

Everything on a mission is so crazy and changes so fast! For those of you keeping tabs on the car situation...still don't have one. The transfer ends literally like next week haha but it's been good! The other sisters took us out one of the days which was nice! I'm trying to think what else happened...I discovered that I know like absolutely nothing about the Old Testament, have been running through all the kid versions of the stories on gospel library :) We had to drop some people this week because we couldn't stay in contact with them, so that was sad. We were also page reps for the Minnesota 2 Facebook page, but they are actually merging all of the pages, so we won't be page reps anymore. It was fun while it lasted though! I know other things happened this week, but I honestly don't remember anything, so this is what you get! 

Spiritual thought for the week: Lately I have been reading a lot in the Book of Ether. Ether is so sad, because the Jaredite civilization is constantly at war and experiencing destruction, always because they forget the Lord their God. I always think about how this could be avoided, and honestly the answer to getting out of the pride cycle is simply gratitude! Gratitude, daily repentance, and just taking a little time every day to remember Heavenly Father and what He has done for you. Take time to be still and remember Him. If you do that, with intent, every single day, you will never be in a position to ever forget the Lord. We have control over where we are going and what we are doing. But yeah, I hope you all have a great week! I'd love to hear from you! 

Three Fortunes, I'm Not Gonna Die!

Hello everyone! This was a good week! Last Monday we got with our district, and we were able to make cookies for zone conference the next day! Zone conference was awesome, the first training was totally about marriage which I thought was hilarious, but all the trainings were super hype. And we ate panda and I had THREE fortunes in my fortune cookie! Probably to make up for all the times in my life I haven't gotten a fortune haha.

We also had exchanges on Thursday which was good! I was with Sister Pearl, one of our STLs. It was good, and I learned a lot from her! This area is kind of rough when it comes to finding, but we might have found two people while cold calling! Unfortunately, one lives in California, but we will still teach her to gauge her interest before sending her info to the missionaries there. We taught the Restoration to another one, but I think she thought we were missionaries from her church so hopefully she is still interested! We have some other people we're teaching but getting in contact with them has been a little rough.

We still don't have a car yet :/ but it's been an adventure! It was supposed to be done last week but it should hopefully be done today or tomorrow! We had a guy who called us and started talking about Japanese culture and the Passover and asked us to see a movie with him? Apparently, the last sisters here had found him and sent him to the elders, and here he is finding us again :) it was super funny. Anyway, this week has gone by super fast but it's been great! 

Spiritual thought for the week: At zone conference something that really stood out to me was noticing where your thoughts come from. God tells you to be more. And He tells you that you can do it. Satan tells you that you will never get there. Source is everything, recognize who you are talking to! You can choose if becoming "more" is a positive or negative thing. We can always be a little more than where we are at now. But don't let Satan get a hold of that knowledge and motivation and turn it into feeling overwhelmed and not enough. If you can't complete the whole task, at least do a little. Giving one percent is better than zero, and success is built on little wins! Trust that when the Lord asks you to be "more," He knows you can do it. Anyway, I love you all, happy Valentine’s Day! I'd love to hear from you! 

I'm In Facebook Jail

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic week :) this week has been fun! We got a ton of snow which was super pretty! We've started doing a lot of cold calling, which is calling random numbers. It's super fun, it can be so awkward, but I love it. For some reason we kept accidentally calling kids. And then apparently, they told all their friends, and we got many prank calls the next day? It was hilarious; they must've been really bored to prank call the missionaries. A cute family gave us a gigantic cake. It was really good.

We still don't have a car yet, so we're usually stuck in our apartment but it's fun! The car should hopefully be here by the end of the week :) as the email title states, I friend requested too many people and Facebook blocked me from like... everything? Hopefully it goes away soon promise I'm not a robot :) anyway most of this week involved finding and teaching a few lessons! We have one lady named Dawn who we were able to teach about temples and that was good! We have some other people that we are teaching too but getting ahold of them is always an adventure :) it's fun though! Life is good! Oh, also we got to make fortune cookies for Chinese New Year in one of my group tutoring sessions! Mine were burnt but they were good!

Spiritual thought for the week:

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is always accessible. It's not pending. Christ already did it, He already suffered! Part of having faith in Him is having faith that after we sincerely repent, we are forgiven. He doesn't want us to beat ourselves up for something He has forgiven us for. That's unnecessary misery, and not how His Atonement works. We may not be perfect, but since He already did it, we can always have access to His enabling power. It's not pending. He did it for us, so accept His gift.

Anyway, I love you all! Please email me back :) 

 

Hola

So, I learned some fun things this week! I learned that if you go on an adventure in -6 degree weather with a mask on, then your breath condensates on your eyelashes and your eyelashes freeze! Pretty fun :) This has been a good week! Lots of lessons, some were definitely more effective than others, there were a few lessons where we could barely get a word in :) it's all an adventure though! We had a baptism for the Alexander family on Saturday! They are so awesome and such a great addition to the ward. Both parents and two of the kids got to be baptized, and I got to witness (which I found out from the program :) ). It was really great!

Our car is still in the shop and will be for probably another week and a half or so, so we're usually just stuck in the apartment, but it's been good! Lots of Facebook finding and messaging, and I've discovered a really good card to utilize is "I'm brand new and need practice teaching...can I practice on you?" We haven't had any lessons with this approach yet but have had people agree to let us teach them so hopefully it gets beyond practicing :) We have this cute lady named Dorothy who they tried to drop a long time ago, but she didn't want to stop meeting with them, so she calls us for approximately one minute every week. Pretty fun :) But yeah things are good! Busy! I'm so sorry for not responding to emails but I promise I love you and read all of the ones you send. Keep me posted! Today we were able to meet with some other missionaries and play games with them and that was nice. Anyway, have a fantastic week!

Spiritual thought for the week: Sorry I'm short on time but I'll make this quick, everyone read the BYU devotional "In the Strength of The Lord" by Bednar! I think I've talked about this before but READ IT AGAIN. We always need it. I read it and then after it was made known to me that BYU devotionals aren't allowed...so whoops...but it's so good! The Atonement of Christ is not just there for redemption, it is also there to strengthen us! It is not only there for sinners, but also for saints. Christ not only makes us clean, He gives us the ability to deal with hard things. I know this is true. Sorry, that was all over the place I'm trying to go fast! Love you all!!!

-江姐妹 (aka Jiang Jiemei) (aka Sister Jensen)

很大下雪

So, I tried to hold some snow here, it wasn't a good idea. No actually Minnesota is great! It's cold but we're usually inside so it's not bad. I'm in an area called Duluth, it's super pretty but also known for being colder :) my trainer's name is Sister Martinez and she's awesome! She is very good at being productive and sticking to the schedule which is exactly what I need! Also, fun fact we have the same birthday! We're whitewashing in this area which means we're both brand new to the area and have no idea what we're doing... but it's fun! Also, our car was broken when we came so we currently are lacking a car.

We actually have 4 baptisms this week that were already on date so that's awesome! Things have been fun. One thing that's sad is that they actually don't have Mandarin missionaries here, but there are weekly zoom calls with the reassigned Mandarin missionaries so that's nice. Also, everything is online, so it's been a bit of an adjustment, but hopefully we'll see the fruits of our labors soon! On the plus side we met with a member my first full day and she said I didn't look like a deer in headlights so that's a good sign! :) I really don't know what else happened, we mostly just contact lots of people and message them and they usually don't respond but we've had a few lessons so far with more to come! 

Spiritual thought for the week:

As missionaries and as people we are asked to be obedient. You always hear that we should be obedient because we love God, rather than just for the sake of obedience. But recently I have been thinking about people who keep the rules but push them and walk on the edge of breaking them. What does that show God about our love for Him? What does that show Him about our trust in His rules and His plan? John 8:29 says, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." When we obey God because we love Him and because we trust Him, He will be with us, and we will be with Him. His way is the only way to true happiness. 

Anyway, I love you and miss you all! Please email me :)

面壁思过

Hello everyone! This week has been a little wild! On Tuesday we were able to do a devotional with Elder Soares! It wasn't in person, but it was live, so he was able to see us. It was super good! Wednesday we hosted new missionaries again (for the fourth time, I mean it's fun but I don't know why they have had us doing it so many times :) ) Thursday morning we all got covid tests and Elder Pyne and Sister Conder (my comp) both tested positive which is really sad, because some people are leaving this week and won't be able to say goodbye to them. This week we have also had several more additions to our district because of flight or covid reasons, so we had Sister Longi for a day, and we have had Sister Haltom the past few days.

Our district has gone through so many changes with people coming and going and getting quarantined and other people getting put with us. Number wise, it goes like this...(Credit to Sister Booth) 7+2-4+2-2+3-2-2+1-1+1-1=4. AAHHHHH. It's actually been a lot of fun though, we've gotten to meet so many new people and I have had 5 companions at this point :) This was also our last week of classes, so on Saturday night we had a testimony meeting and did a whole bunch of other really cool stuff. It was really great. We have the most incredible teachers. I'm so excited to be going to the field but it doesn't really feel real yet! I leave on Wednesday at 5 am. Our first original member to leave for the mission (Elder Chan) left early this morning. Ahh my district is the best and I'm going to miss them all so much but I'm so excited to get to work! This week has honestly felt so long, and it's mostly been a blur so sorry that my email is all over the place! 

 Anyway, spiritual thought:

The faith section in the Bible Dictionary states, "To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. The Lord has revealed Himself and His perfect character, possessing in their fullness all the attributes of love, knowledge, justice, mercy, unchangeableness, power, and every other needful thing, so as to enable the mind of man to place confidence in Him without reservation." I just love this. The Lord gives us all of the resources we need to have full faith in Him without reservation. Sometimes it may not feel that way, because we don't know, but that is exactly what faith is. Faith is a belief of things not seen, and faith in Jesus Christ is a principle of power!

Confidence in Jesus Christ and His healing and forgiving power is what drives us to repent. Confidence in Jesus Christ and His promises are what drive us to follow Him. Confidence in Jesus Christ and His perfect plan are what drive us to keep His commandments and follow His promptings, even when we don't understand why. And this faith in Jesus Christ, this confidence that He will prevail in all things, and everything will turn out okay, brings miracles. But oftentimes we have to act on our faith before those miracles come, and in this way, we build more faith! Sorry, tangent. I just love this gospel so much, it's really incredible. Anyway, I love you all and would love to hear from you! 

江姐妹 (aka Jiang Jiemei) (aka Sister Jensen)