Last email ever apparently

Long time, no chat :) P-day just got moved next week because of the holiday, so I think this is it for me, last p-day. And my last email is one of those awkward emails where I just talked to you yesterday so no one emailed me and I have nothing new to say hahaha sorry bout that.... Well, this was a really good week! Tina's kids started sitting in on the lessons, which we're so excited about. Mikey is 11 and he's very hesitant about it all because his mom (Tina's his step-mom) is Native and so he agrees with Native beliefs, but he listened closely and had great questions and took it all really well. Tatum, the 7 year old, loves everything we share and eats it all up. Her mom is already starting to try to prepare her to be baptized when she turns 8 in November. She had the best questions about the plan of Salvation as well, like "So in the Spirit World when people from the Spirit Paradise come teach people in Spirit Prison about the gospel, are like the king and queen of the Spirit Prison mad at the missionaries and try to kick them out and keep people from leaving?" and "If we die, and the body goes to the ground, and the spirit moves on, and the bury the person, but then in a few hours the spirit comes back and the person isn't dead, then what? Would you like go to jail for pretending to be dead or would they for burying someone not dead?" and "So if you take your insides, like let's say you die and we put your lungs in someone else, do they get part of your spirit in them too? How do they have 2 spirits in one body if that happens?" HAHAHA! She really did make me think though about the Spirit Prison, if people don't want others to accept the gospel and try to convince people to stay. After all, we have our same spirits, and you can see that happening all the time on Earth. Not sure...But we explained there's no king and queen of the spirit world, as far as I've heard hahaha. We had exchanges with the Hermanas, like I told you. It was pretty hilarious because Sister Fisher freaked everyone out that she saw because they all thought I'd gone home and they'd missed me haha bonus is now we have a hundred meal appointments this week because everyone wants to say bye. Going to Kitchener was really fun, it's different working in a big city. Sister Fisher and I have some insanely high goals this week and are so excited about them. We're gonna triple our member present lessons from last week! My mission president told me one week his last transfer he and his companion set high goals and tried to do everything because there was nothing to lose, and I've been trying to take that to heart and just go for things and try things without worrying about failing. Faith is the opposite of fear, and faith yields miracles, so I'm going to just throw my fear out the window and have a miraculous week. Love you all. So good to talk to you all yesterday! I'll talk to ya real soon :)

Stake Conference and Sunshine

Sorry, I have like 5 minutes to write today. But i'll skype with ya in less than a week, so I'm not feeling too guilty.

This week was stake conference, which was awesome because it was 100% about missionary work. We all had to sit on the stand and sing the first verse of called to serve, then the RMs joined in the second, then everyone sang the whole song again together. The Stake President challenged everyone to set a date to introduce someone to the gospel, so we now have an excuse to ask every single member what their date is and how we can help them. YES!

Oh Mom, remind me sometime to tell you about Sister Scott's talk about thoughts at zone conference. It goes so perfect with what you said. Basically she told us we completely control our thoughts and need to have only faith filled thoughts so our minds become a holy place. She read a TON of scriptures about it and told us to read Alma 36 and just pay attention to the role of thoughts, which was awesome to do.

Tina may be perfect, seriously. ADORE HER. She basically bore her testimony to us about everything this week and always says "I just want to get baptized!!" Her 7 year old daughter Tatum is becoming my best friend too, love her too stinking much. She sits by me every time we come over and drew me this GIANT picture.

We set a baptismal date with one of the part member families we've been teaching, Nick. It was a hilarious lesson because he's so scientific so he answers everything different. We taught the plan of salvation and Sister Fisher asked "which sounds like where you'd want to live, the sun, the moon, or the stars?" We got a mini lecture on how the stars are the best answer because of their warmth and brightness and variety, and then he said "the moon is just a mystery to me..." Which rather than address we completely ignored and moved on. We asked him to say the closing prayer, and at first he didn't want to but he agreed and said "Saying it out loud is probably good anyways because of the vibrations in the air. The universe knows our language, you know, so the universe responds to positive words...." ....Okay....whatever works...?

It was kind of a weird week with all the meetings, but so good. IT'S FINALLY WARM. I got a sunburn and everything :) I'm dying over the amazing spring they get here, the dandylions are my favoite thing and as Sister Fisher says "the trees are growing hair! they aren't bald!" hahaha

Love you all! Talk to you on Sunday!

PS--I forgot the best story!

So turns out, my companions LOVE me.

I got my travel plans at zone training this Friday, and Sister Sorensen teases me EVERY DAY by telling me how long I have left. So she wanted to see my travel plans and took them and read them pretty much before I did. So I turned around for a second to talk to someone, and then turn back to find her staring at me BAWLING. She just cried and said "I can't believe you're going home! You can't go home! I can't serve without you!" HAHAHAHA it was so unexpected I could not stop laughing at her. Ever since she sits by me in everything and has basically made herself my companion again lol poor thing. Love her.

Anyways, have a grand week!

You're here to learn character...

Hey family! Sorry emails keep coming later and later....p-days are getting increasingly insane. At least we have a car this week!

 So yesterday was zone conference with Elder Paul Johnson of the 70, which was fantastic le duh. He basically talked about commitments as a missionary- why we invite others to make and keep them, and the importance of keeping them ourselves. He drew a line at a 45 degree angle going up and explained how that line is like our progression and while we're all at different points of the line and thus taking different steps- or keeping different commitments- the principle is the same. We all only learn spiritual things and develop by acting and obediently taking the next step. No one step of obedience can be skipped, we can't move forward until we take it. So if we're talking about the gospel we never progress, no matter how much it seems we are. Only action moves us forward. Thinking about it is good, talking about it is nice, but only doing it produces results in our investigators and results in us. If someone isn't acting, there's no point in another lesson. We need to properly teach them HOW TO ACT and then let them do it. Other good lesson: "Don't be weird. You're here to learn character, not be a character." True Doctrine, Elder.

So wonderful Peggy Lynn came to church this week! She had to leave right after sacrament meeting because her back was killing her, but she loved it. Tina couldn't come because her fiancee and step-son were running in a race that morning- but she did fast and is doing AMAZING! She told us the coolest thing this week. A while ago I asked her if she thought her fiancee had noticed a change in her since she started learning the gospel. She told me on Friday (over all you can eat sushi-I love that woman!!) that she had asked him that about a week ago, and he had called her the day before and told her he'd been thinking about it and couldn't explain it but there was a different feel in the house. The kids were better behaved, she was happier, and the home was just better. She was SO excited he could feel the Spirit!

I think that's my life......I love you all! Talk to yous in a week!

Pictures of the week:

With Sister Scott and Sister Johnson

The Brantford Sisters

Some of my favorite people in Ontario

   

Love from Canada

Morning loves- (my new favorite member of the ward is from England and calls us love haha) You live in Utah now! Weird! Haha glad to hear you are taking advantage of seeing everyone though. I hope you're all planning the giant get together party for me once I'm home! If anyone has requests you better send them now- I'm already planning on bringing Cobe ketchup chips as requested a year and a half ago, but if the cousins want anything else please let me know. Guess what? I got snowed on this week too! I hate winter. And it's not even winter anymore! Still, I can't complain- Sister Fisher has been having the coldest experience of her life and it's never even gone below freezing. I love happy faith-filled companions- the area has started TAKING OFF! I know SIster Von Niederhausern and I did alot to lay the ground work for now, but I know that's Sister Fisher's never ending faith is the cause of the current success. One of our new investigators from last week we've dropped, but the other is Peggy-Lynn and she's the SWEETEST woman and we saw her almost every day this week. We do some service for her because she has health issues and she stinking loves us, she told us she knows God sent us. The actually teaching is going slowly but really well, she's gone from saying she'll never convert or come to church to asking us to arrange her a ride for next week. We met her because she's renting her basement to a mormon.org referal, Phillip. We're now teaching Phillip, Peggy-Lynn, and her friend Mary Anne, and her sister in law Mary Lou sat in once and her fiancee is thinking about sitting in. Best house in Brantford haha! Have I mentioned Tina is PERFECT!? I LOVE her, I can't even explain how great she is. She's so excited we have fast Sunday next week instead of in May due to stake conference because she's so excited to fast. She's still working so hard to figure out how to change her living situation so she can be baptized, other than that she is so ready. She made a comment this week about how she wants some kind of renewal and that's probably not going to come till baptism so she just wants to be baptized so bad! A few weeks ago she had said she needed confirmation about baptism to be as sure about that as she is about the Book of Mormon, and then this week she was talking about how she knows she needs to be baptized and can't wait. I told her I was so excited she got that answer, and the next day she told us she was caught off guard when I said that because she'd forgotten she wasn't always so sure about baptism haha. Also, she feeds us at least once a week so I obviously adore her. She and her daughter Tatum came to church this Sunday, both loved it and are coming next week. We did a Brantford exchange this week and I got to work with Sister Sorensen's companion, Sister Ormond. It's so funny working with the baby of your baby, it felt like I'd trained her because she had all the same work style and habits as me lol. This next few weeks are CRAZY! We have skills training and interviews with President Scott tomorrow, Zone Conference with a member of the 70 Monday (I am so excited, I LOVED last time a GA came!), and then zone training that Friday. We're also probably going to do another Brantford exchange and a zone sister's exchange. And my district leader asked me to do district meeting on the 7th. BUSY MUCH? We had to take in the car to get the bumper fixed this week so we're going to be carless again....Back to the buses, where all my skills disolve and it's like I'm back in Owen Sound again and suddenly scared to talk to people. I'm determined to be better this week than I was last time I was on the bus! So I'm trying to finish the new testament and the Book of Mormon before I go home, and I love reading the 2 together. Admittedly Paul goes over my head alot, I'm not really smart enough to understand all of the Bible, but I love seeing how the 2 really do go hand in hand. The same themes and principles will be in both, if I notice something in the Book of Mormon the same thing will pop up 3 days later in the New Testament. I love the way they support each other! I guess that's all. Love you all! Have a great week!

God is a prankster

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you very much for answering my prayers- you're always really good at that. However, if I may make a suggestion, it would be cool if once it happened in a way that didn't make me die a little inside. Sheesh, you'd think you were trying to help me grow or something. When I asked for all those blessings and help, I really just wanted it to magically happen, not for you to create a situation where I could make it happen. Funny how often you do that to me.

I think the transfer call shouldn't have been so much of a surprise. I definitely had gotten promptings to prepare me for it, I was just happily chucking them out the window because I was so sure it would make no sense to get a transfer call my last transfer. But nothing is ever guaranteed on a mission.

I'm gonna miss Sister Von Niederhausern, she was a really fun companion and sending her all the way east to Kingston means I won't even see her at the next zone conference! But she's so excited about it I guess I can't complain. We're gonna spend today doing anything she wants to do and going to Kitchener for a last zone hurrah.

Being asked to train AGAIN, however, was quite the unpleasant shock! But after a long night of trying to figure out WHY ON EARTH you would have me start training another new sister for my last 6 weeks, I've come to terms with it and am actually excited. I love training, and it's always a great source of motivation to work hard and be better than I currently am, which is much needed at this point on my mission. I would have never guessed though that in my 3 transfers in Brantford I would train 3 times.

The news about Sister Sorensen training again is also a massive shock, President Scott told her a few days ago he had no plans to move either her or Sister Wise. I guess something changed though. I'm thrilled Sister Wise is going to Woodstock though, that was my favorite area and I'm stoked she'll still be in the district. Brantford is officially my legacy, in 4 months will have hosted me, 2 of my babies, and 2 of my grandbabies hahaha!

By the way, 8 sisters and 2 Elders in one district? Yikes! That will be different. Before I went to Woodstock there were only 6 Elders in this district!

Also, I need to thank you for the fantastic week. Tina had an AMAZING time at General Conference! She had opened up to us about a lot of very legitimate and hard fears she has about joining the church, but all of the talks she was there for were perfect to address them. Even though that was one of the most intense conferences I've ever seen-I've never heard so many warning about how we need to strengthen our families!- it was also a very refreshing weekend. 

I'll never stop being grateful I got to be here for Shawn's baptism too- that's 2 of my investigators I got to see Sister Sorensen baptize after I left the area! And Tina said she loved the baptismal service. It's always good when investigators can see one and feel the Spirit that's there.

Catherine is a really cool new investigator, I'm excited about her. Thanks for the unusally strong prompting that led us to knock on her door, and for helping us not be discouraged by the super rude man who lived at the house we knocked just before hers. Her lesson was almost picture perfect, Sister Von Niederhausern was super bold in challenging her to a date even after she didn't give a firm yes or no to the baptismal invitation. I was really proud of her even though Catherine still turned it down haha besides I think she'll agree to a date soon, she's definitely seeking the restored church.

Thank you for prompting Sister Williams to send me those old entries out of her journal from when we together. Not only were they HILARIOUS- my favorite was probably the entry from when we were first put together and she was plotting to convince me to let her cut my hair- and uplifting-she praised me way more in her journal than I would have ever suspected- but it also created a cool miracle. After reading them I started flipping thorough my old entries from when I was training her, and found an entry where I talked about OYMing this amazing woman on the street. Unfortunately, she wasn't from Bowmanville, she lived in Brantford (which I misspelled-Bramford. I had no idea where that random city was hahaha) so we had to pass her information on! I can really vividly remember that meeting, which is unusual to remember a random person you stopped on the street, so I looked in my old planner and sure enough I still have her address and phone number. Best part is she even lives in my half of the city! Her neighbors said she out of town right now-explains the over flowing mailbox- but I'm going to follow up on that potential and baptize her this transfer.

I got my parents' package this week and was ESPECIALLY delighted over the new sweater, I didn't think they'd send me clothes anymore even though I officially hate everything I own at this point. And now I have something to wear to trainers meeting tomorrow. I'll be praying extra hard all goes well with the move and that they're all settled when I get home so I don't have to help any with the unpacking (kidding).

Thanks for listening to one of my many many rants to you. Again, thanks for the chance to train again, and pleeeeeease HELP ME.

Love Sister Jensen!

We can't teach anyone of the Gospel, the Spirit has to do it.

Some member was telling me about the blue bonnets being out in Texas this week, as we were standing out in the snow. Cruel eh? Haha actually SPRING is FINALLY here, ask it doesn't go much below 0 degrees during the day, so I can't complain much about the cold. Here's hoping we've had our last snow!

 Leadership was so good, turns out it was only for trainers/trainees and the zone leaders, and we just went over all the basics of the mission that the babies may not have heard- the standards of excellence, the steps to raise the bar we focus on, ect. It was a really good refresher and good to see all the new missionaries get really excited about the stuff that isn't new to me anymore-good rekindling of faith about it all. Plus, anytime I get together with Svesta Williams and Le Cas (Sisters Williams and Casner) I'm happy :) AND Sister Wester was there, it was a happy little reunion party!

 Exchanges was really fun, I went to Kitchener with Sister Monthe from Leon, France. She's a convert of 5 years and is hilarious, she's Sister Casner's last companion. Cutie. Everytime I go to Kitchener it reminds me of the hilarious joke God keeps playing on me of putting me in little towns when I LOVE bigger cities haha. The highlight was probably teaching 2 Muslim brothers, which was actually just one of them trying to convert us to Islasm. The other brother seemed really sincere though, he just listened to us and his brother and then explained what he had read in the Book of Mormon since their last visit. Testimony builder of why we have to teach and get answers from the Spirit- the kid had a wonderful scientific explanation of why he was right, but it didn't mean a thing to us. Likewise any answers to his questions we gave didn't change his mind one bit. We can't teach anyone of the Gospel, the Spirit has to do it and if the Spirit isn't present there's no point in being there. Thankfully Sister Monthe and the member we had with us were really good at bringing everytihng back to the need to pray to know if it's true or it could have been a huge bash, but it was actually pretty good all things considered.

 Tina is doing SO GOOD, we taght her twice this week and also taught her mom twice! Turns out her mom used to meet with missionaries years ago but got caught up on Jospeh Smith. So we answered all her questions and she wants to meet again. Too bad she lives in Smith Falls! Still, it was awesome. Future Celestial Family.

WE GOT A CAR THIS WEEK! Huzzah! Life is infinitely easier now :) I also got the best news ever this week....WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE ON SATURDAY!!!! SO EXCITED!!!! Last transfer Brantford wasn't invited, we were out of the boundaries, but they've JUST changed it because there are so many new areas. AND WE GET TO GO!!!! I didn't realized how much I've missed they temple until they told us that. I would laugh last transfer because one of Sister Sorensen's hobbies was plotting ways to get permission ("What if I have a big enough break down?" You can't fake a break down Sister. "What if we go 2 hours early on transfer day?" President won't approve that. "What if we go on a p-day and a member drives us?" It's closed on Mondays. "DANG IT!") but now we're probably equally excited, I'm craving the temple.

Whelp just found out we're probably going to Cambridge for p-day, so gotta go write the prez. Love ya! Have a grand week!

Time to go find some more of those prepared people!

Bonjour-

So one of my investigators from last transfer was baptized this week! Paul Henhawk, he's from a part-member family. His wife was just glowing the whole time and he had the biggest grin when he came up. Made me all warm and fuzzy,  even though I haven't been the one teaching him.  I'm glad I got to be at the baptism. All 4 of us sisters sang at the baptism, and not gonna lie it was crazy good, I don't think any of us are perfect singers on our own but it was a dang good combination.  Time to go find some more of those prepared people! I got a blessing at the start of this transfer where I was told that there were still people I was meant to find, so I plan to see more baptisms soon.

We started teaching a new investigator, Harvey. He married a member about a year ago. He's a trucker so he's hardly ever around, so it'll be a slow process, but we shared the plan of salvation with him and his wife and he said he'd thought about what happens after this life and has questions like everyone else. We're seeing him again next month, and his wife afterwards was like "Yeah he's always gone now, so it'll be hard, but he retires in 2 years so....." Hahaha we're all scheming!

This week we met Wayne Gretzky's dad! Wayne Gretzky is a big shot hockey player who's from Brantford and his dad still lives here, and apparently loves the missionaries and will give him free stuff and get him autographs so they "accidentally" tract into him every so often. Ever since hearing this Sister Von Niederhausern, a big hockey fan, has wanted to go find him. But then one day we were walking down a street to a member's home and this man was outside and waved us over and started giving us free hockey calendars. He gave us 5 and was disappointed we wouldn't take more. We tried to talk to him but he was interested, so we thanked him for the calendars and carried on. After the appointment with the member Sister Von Niederhausern asked her if she knew Wayne Gretzky's dad's address and she looked all surprised and told us it was the man that gave us the calendars. Hahaha we we accidentally found him, rather than "accidentally"! Sister Von Niederhausern still wants to go back for a picture though.

This upcoming week is nuts. We have leadership training tomorrow, district meeting Friday, and exchanges Saturday- all in other cities. I'm going on exchanges with Sister Monthe, Sister Casner's last compaions who's from France. We also have 4 super solid referrals we're hopefully going to teach this week! So I'm really excited and ready to go.

Okay, gotta finish emails- this takes a lot longer now that I can actually email people! 

Love you, hope all continues to go well with the house! Catch you cats on the flip flop later!