Friday, February 4, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January 18, 2011 Sick in bed.
Woof. This week has been rough. and great. That is true of every week. But I have not been feeling good and everyone is like "get better" "get better" "what can we get you?" And I'm just like, I don't know, what I really want is my mom, but you probably don't have the power on that one. I can finally see out of my face now that it isn't so plogged up and burning. But I'm still not quite myself in energy levels and clear headedness. Can't have it all i guess.
We got to meet with Jeff today and another time during the week. I can't explain him to you. If it were at all appropriate to film our meetings and record his prayers i would and you would all be sobbing. This man is such a treasure to me. He told us today that he has a vision of him sitting in his living room with his boys and stepdaughters with each of them holding and reading a Book of Mormon. Did i already tell you that he got a new job so that he doesn't have to work on Sundays and he quit drinking without us teaching either of those principles!? The Spirit is working so strongly on him, I have never seen anything like this before. Seriously mind blowing. He was supposed to come to Church this week but ended up having to work a midnight shift and couldn't make it. Today when he prayed he was pleading with God to let him come to Church on Sunday. I mean, none of it is over the top, it is just so sincere and humble. We dropped off a Bible a couple of weeks ago and the last time we taught him we were talking about something and he said, "oh yeah, you'll know them by their fruits." Wha?!? When we gave him another pamphlet today and asked him to read it he said, "oh yeah, I love these things. I'll read it as soon as you leave." I feel so full when we leave his house.
Stephanie and Madison got confirmed on Sunday. It was beautiful. Madison leaned on me during Sacrament and I seriously thought that my heart might burst. We dropped by to say hi last night and I just couldn't get myself out the door. It is so hard for me to leave being with them. Stephanie reminds me a lot of myself and we just get each other on so many things. She is dog sitting for her sister right now and we were talking about how dogs are such a part of the family. She said that her sister even refers to her as Aunt Stephanie for the dog and I said, "Me too!" Jorin her four year old was running around in his onsie and I told him how I have one and she said, "really?! where did you find one, i have been looking for one!" See why i love her so much? We are meant to be friends. She seems so much older than me because she has 3 kids but she is really only 26. Which is as old as Alli and last time I checked we were actually the same age so I guess that means me and Stephanie are too?
We have interviews tomorrow and zone training on Thursday. I am excited about both of those. I can't remember the rest of this last week because I was sick and delirious for most of it. I am going to tell you more about Delaware next week. i haven't shared too much about it but I want to tell you what the people are like and how things work here. Don't forget it's the first state. and it's tax free. Those are it's claims to fame. I love you people!
January 10, 2011 Jenny celebrates a baptism!
This has truly been the craziest week of my life. let me see if i can go backward and describe it.
In the last week:
Zone conference
Moved apartments
2 people baptized
Lost phone charger and use of the phone
Car problems and went 2 days without a car
That doesn't look like very much but it was insane
The baptism yesterday was so good. i only had eyes for Stephanie and Madison. My cheeks hurt at the end of the day because i was smiling so hard the whole time. I just couldn't stop nor did i want to. I love them really more than I can say. i got to stand at the top of the steps to the font while they were both being baptized and it was really special because i could only see them and Brother Taylor and I could hear them perfectly before and after they were baptized. i got to hold Stephanie's robe and receive her when she came up and then stand with her and watch Madison be baptized. How can I describe this? I don't know how to put the feelings of joy and peace and gratitude into words. It has been an incredible process from the very first time that we met them. I still remember that Sunday afternoon when we taught them about Joseph Smith and they already knew that they wanted to make changes and join the Church.
Saturday night they had their baptism interviews with our District leader. It was so special as I got to talk with each of them while the other one was interviewed. When Madison came out of her interview she sat on the floor with her back against the wall and I sat in front of her to ask her how things went and she held my hands and we just talked for a few minutes. Seriously joy beyond description. I love the way that people trust you as a missionary and have a desire to ask you for help. This week was just so good. Satan was of course kind of obnoxious but that didn't hold us up.
Friday night we got a call from Renee that Cameron had died earlier that afternoon. I cried and talked about her and wished that I could have seen her one more time. But I rejoice in knowing that I'll see her again. I love her so much. I hope that she is able to see how many people down here love her and felt love from her. She was wonderful and I can hardly wait for you to meet her. When we went to buy something for Renee on Saturday we were going home and noticed the car having trouble. We made some calls and it happened that the Spanish elders were really close by so they were able to come get our car and drive it to pepboys for us. After that we were their hostages and they took us to a hot dog place. I kind of hope that you don't believe this but I got a hot dog with nacho cheese on it. And the special deerhead sauce. Yeah, I truly have lost all standards for my food consumption. One of the Elders put down two foot longs. Wow.
So from Saturday morning until this morning we haven't had a car and members have had to drive us around. It has been interesting. i am going to send this because i am low on time and i don't know if it will let me renew or not.
A New Year Begins January 3, 2011
Family-
So we are floaters with no home. I don't know what will happen to us but I am loving living with the Sisters. It has been a blast and this week was incredible. I forget that I haven't told you any of the good news yet.
So.......
Each companionship in our district has a rock that has been sanitized and bleached over night by our lovely District Leader. We are to keep that rock on our bed until we say our companionship prayer every night and then we can move it and go to sleep. We pray for each companionship and a specific desire that they have. We also pray for our companion and their specific needs. Everyone had a testimony of the prayer rock and I didn't really yet. We had chosen a couple of weeks ago to pray for baptism dates and it remained that Madison was the only one with a planned baptism. Until this week! We were able to meet with Stephanie and Sister Taber while the kids were gone and committed Stephanie to be baptized! I am so excited. She is doing the stop smoking program right now and we are helping her with it. Her and Madison are going to be baptized this Sunday and I can hardly wait. Satan has definitely thrown some things at her and is not going to make this easy but she is so strong and I know that they will make it. Madison got put in her new primary class yesterday and I called her teacher to see how it went and she said that Madison really knows her stuff and was able to share her favorite Book of Mormon story and contribute the whole time. I am so proud of her! She is so smart. I think I said it before but she read the entire Book of Mormon stories in one weekend. I love that girl. We were able to have a good lesson with her and Stephanie last night and we have everything in place to see them a lot this week so we can help them progress to baptism. I am thrilled. It is such a blessing to be in their lives to witness them at the time that Heavenly Father prepared them to join the church. I am so grateful that He would allow me to be here.
Then... last night we went to see Jeff Morgan. Well, let me go back to our other lessons this week. We saw him on Monday and Thursday and his questions were awesome. We had given him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet when we first met him at his door a couple of weeks ago and he told us that he takes it with him everywhere and reads it over and over again all day. Then on Thursday we felt ready to introduce the Book of Mormon to him and when I called on Saturday to confirm our appointment he had already read through chapter 10! He is so hungry for knowledge! So we met with him last night and he wanted to say the opening and closing prayer. After every time he wipes tears from his eyes and says, "do you think He heard me?" AHHHHH! That's when I have to wipe tears from my eyes. He prayed about the Book of Mormon and he prayed about the Plan of Salvation. He is loving it. He feels like he doesn't understand and that he will have a long way to go but he is doing great. So last night we had a killer lesson with the Burke's present. Brother Burke actually shared the 1st Vision which was awesome and the lesson went so well. Basically Brother Burke was my companion because Sister Burke only said a few things and every time I waited and looked at Sister Langi she shook her head. At the end of the lesson we committed him to baptism! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! So exciting! He had to travel yesterday but he is going to come to church with his son this week and then also to Madison's baptism. I am ecstatic. I screamed the whole ride home and then when we got back to the sisters apartment I was dancing around and screaming and crying and being so excited. I love Jeff so much and I know that he will love being a part of the Church. He is going to ask Bam Bam today at work if he can start switching with him and getting Sundays off! Can you people feel the excitement that is coming through the computer screen?! Heavenly Father is dumping blessings on our heads. More than we have room to receive. I love Him so much. And I love Christ so much. I am so happy and feel like I have reached a greater level of enjoying the work. Not just because things are going well but because I feel like I know what God wants from me and I have stopped worrying about so many things and become so much happier and myself again.
Staying with the sisters has been a blast. I am loving it. I kind of secretly hope that our apartment isn't ready tomorrow. Except it will be nice to not be living out of suitcases and wearing the same clothes every day. But I don't even mind. They are so funny and it was especially nice to be with them on new years. We had to be in early so I baked some treats and then we had a fake countdown that we had to keep switching because our cameras weren't ready. Eventually we just decided that midnight was when our timers went off. I got the whole thing on video and it is hysterical. I just feel so good. We had music on and I was dancing around and just loving everything. We had noisemakers from dinner at the Kindermans before that and Sister Sasser had silly string and we had sparkling cider so it was a pretty decent celebration. I will have to take pictures of the amount of stuff that is in our apartment because it is insane. I had no idea that there were that many items buried in the closets of our last apartment. We threw a lot away but I hope that we can get rid of even more as we put things away in our new apartment. Also it has been amazing because the sisters apartments have a workout room so Sister Sasser and I have gotten to go work out every morning. I love the elliptical! I am praying that our new place will have one. I would get up early for that. Happy New Year.
So we are floaters with no home. I don't know what will happen to us but I am loving living with the Sisters. It has been a blast and this week was incredible. I forget that I haven't told you any of the good news yet.
So.......
Each companionship in our district has a rock that has been sanitized and bleached over night by our lovely District Leader. We are to keep that rock on our bed until we say our companionship prayer every night and then we can move it and go to sleep. We pray for each companionship and a specific desire that they have. We also pray for our companion and their specific needs. Everyone had a testimony of the prayer rock and I didn't really yet. We had chosen a couple of weeks ago to pray for baptism dates and it remained that Madison was the only one with a planned baptism. Until this week! We were able to meet with Stephanie and Sister Taber while the kids were gone and committed Stephanie to be baptized! I am so excited. She is doing the stop smoking program right now and we are helping her with it. Her and Madison are going to be baptized this Sunday and I can hardly wait. Satan has definitely thrown some things at her and is not going to make this easy but she is so strong and I know that they will make it. Madison got put in her new primary class yesterday and I called her teacher to see how it went and she said that Madison really knows her stuff and was able to share her favorite Book of Mormon story and contribute the whole time. I am so proud of her! She is so smart. I think I said it before but she read the entire Book of Mormon stories in one weekend. I love that girl. We were able to have a good lesson with her and Stephanie last night and we have everything in place to see them a lot this week so we can help them progress to baptism. I am thrilled. It is such a blessing to be in their lives to witness them at the time that Heavenly Father prepared them to join the church. I am so grateful that He would allow me to be here.
Then... last night we went to see Jeff Morgan. Well, let me go back to our other lessons this week. We saw him on Monday and Thursday and his questions were awesome. We had given him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet when we first met him at his door a couple of weeks ago and he told us that he takes it with him everywhere and reads it over and over again all day. Then on Thursday we felt ready to introduce the Book of Mormon to him and when I called on Saturday to confirm our appointment he had already read through chapter 10! He is so hungry for knowledge! So we met with him last night and he wanted to say the opening and closing prayer. After every time he wipes tears from his eyes and says, "do you think He heard me?" AHHHHH! That's when I have to wipe tears from my eyes. He prayed about the Book of Mormon and he prayed about the Plan of Salvation. He is loving it. He feels like he doesn't understand and that he will have a long way to go but he is doing great. So last night we had a killer lesson with the Burke's present. Brother Burke actually shared the 1st Vision which was awesome and the lesson went so well. Basically Brother Burke was my companion because Sister Burke only said a few things and every time I waited and looked at Sister Langi she shook her head. At the end of the lesson we committed him to baptism! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! So exciting! He had to travel yesterday but he is going to come to church with his son this week and then also to Madison's baptism. I am ecstatic. I screamed the whole ride home and then when we got back to the sisters apartment I was dancing around and screaming and crying and being so excited. I love Jeff so much and I know that he will love being a part of the Church. He is going to ask Bam Bam today at work if he can start switching with him and getting Sundays off! Can you people feel the excitement that is coming through the computer screen?! Heavenly Father is dumping blessings on our heads. More than we have room to receive. I love Him so much. And I love Christ so much. I am so happy and feel like I have reached a greater level of enjoying the work. Not just because things are going well but because I feel like I know what God wants from me and I have stopped worrying about so many things and become so much happier and myself again.
Staying with the sisters has been a blast. I am loving it. I kind of secretly hope that our apartment isn't ready tomorrow. Except it will be nice to not be living out of suitcases and wearing the same clothes every day. But I don't even mind. They are so funny and it was especially nice to be with them on new years. We had to be in early so I baked some treats and then we had a fake countdown that we had to keep switching because our cameras weren't ready. Eventually we just decided that midnight was when our timers went off. I got the whole thing on video and it is hysterical. I just feel so good. We had music on and I was dancing around and just loving everything. We had noisemakers from dinner at the Kindermans before that and Sister Sasser had silly string and we had sparkling cider so it was a pretty decent celebration. I will have to take pictures of the amount of stuff that is in our apartment because it is insane. I had no idea that there were that many items buried in the closets of our last apartment. We threw a lot away but I hope that we can get rid of even more as we put things away in our new apartment. Also it has been amazing because the sisters apartments have a workout room so Sister Sasser and I have gotten to go work out every morning. I love the elliptical! I am praying that our new place will have one. I would get up early for that. Happy New Year.
Christmas 2010
The message if you hear it, is make it last all year.
- A Muppet Christmas Carol
Christmas was so good! Our phone call was perfect and I just love you people. Thank you so much for the strength of your testimonies and love. It was so good to talk to each of you and be supercharged by hearing your voices. That will last me for a long time, trust me. The day was just wonderful. After eating the waffle and pancake breakfast and calling my favorite family the sisters came over for a bit and visited before we each went to our Christmas dinners. We ate with Paul and Angela Dean, our investigators. It was such a good meal and then an awesome lesson talking about Joseph Smith and answering Paul's rapid fire questions. He wants all of the answers to just be told to him by us but we keep promising him that his answers will come from the Book of Mormon if he will pray before reading and ask the things that he wants to know. After their appointment we went to the Scullions for dinner. They have two little kids who are hilarious. Ayden is five I think and so funny. He was counting and he said, "23, 24, 25, 100, and that's how you count to 100." They gave us each a scarf and then Ayden said, "you're welcome, and if you're here on your birthday then we'll buy you a birthday present because we have the money to do that but if we don't have the money then we're sorry." He was cracking me up the whole time. So hilarious. It was a humble Christmas and I was so grateful that we were a part of it. They were really excited to have us and I was really excited to be there.
Singing for the critically ill children on Friday was probably my favorite Christmas activity. I truly felt the Spirit so strongly around them because I knew what strong spirits they were before this life. I knew that they had already passed their tests and proven themselves so they really only needed to be here to gain their physical body. I hope that I can be as strong and faithful as they are. They are so close to Heavenly Father and their mission on earth is to soften the rest of our hearts and give us opportunities to serve.
Sunday we were grounded because of the snow storm. We were able to go eat at the Bowser's for lunch and it was really good to get to know them. I hadn't ever had much opportunity to talk to their family but we had such a blast at their house. Brother Bowser had some crazy mission stories and it was really neat to hear the way that the Lord has looked out for him and blessed his life. From that meeting we were able to have hime come out teaching with us last night and it was so good. We went and taught Jeff Morgan for the second time and it was amazing. He is so searching right now and has a million questions. What is so neat about it is that he trust us so much. He takes our answers and knowledge as truth and doesn't question the possibility of what we teach. He questions that God and Christ could really love him as much as they love us but he is learning that God will answer His sincere desires. He is the one that told us how he had said to God that the next people that came to his door he would listen to and it was us. I was floored when I heard that. He has been prepared in so many small ways. Not only the spritual ways but he happened to get dress shirts for Christmas and it is crazy that Heavenly Father takes care of those details and gives us what we need to follow Him. And we act like it's hard! people are so silly. Anyway, his two sons are going to join us next time and I really hope that we can continue to teach them and answer their questions. I am really excited to be a part of their lives.
December 20,2010 Getting excited for Christmas
So zone conference was amazing. We were supposed to watch 'It's a Wonderful Life" but it started snowing so President sent us home early. So sad but it's ok, we had time for a snowball fight first. I mentioned it in my picture email that I was standing there talking to someone and I got hit with a snowball so I of course had to engage in some snowball throwing. It was a blast and I of course one with a sneak attack from the back.
During zone conference we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon which I really loved. We talked about the history, about the printing, etc. It was neat. Then we played games in the gym, did some skits, had some musical numbers, etc. It was a really really fun day. I loved it and I got to sit with Sister Pallas at lunch which was most enjoyable. She looked gorgeous and had the cutest new bangs. Lucky!
Over the weekend we taught a crazy amount of lessons because Sister Langi is quiet but she can sure keep up. I am grateful for how sweet she has been. It will be fun to watch her bless lives while she is here. I am excited for the work we will do and for her faith. I am going to help her gain a greater knowledge of the scriptures and she is going to teach me how to hula! I am coming home with so many new skills, you people will be amazed. She also loves to bake and Sister John sent us home with a bunch of ingredients yesterday so we are going to bake for our investigators this week. I am so excited!
A girl from the ward came home for Christmas and signed up to come teaching with us last night. She is adorable and got back from her mission to Bulgaria four months ago. It was so fun to have her come with us and hear about her experiences. We are spending Christmas Eve with her family and I am excited to get to know her better. I hope that I can look her up when we're both at BYU. Except I don't want to go back there, I don't know how I'm going to leave here. When some of my closest friends left to go home on Friday it was really hard for me. They were in my first district and were some of the very first Elders I met out here. I didn't realize that THEy could leave and it made me realize that someday they will make Me leave. Yipes! Good thing I like my family and want to see them again or I don't know what I'd do. I am just so happy here. This weekend really rejuvenated me. I got a blessing and I feel like I've turned over a new leaf. Things are going well and people are coming out of the woodwork for us to teach. Just yesterday we got two different media referrals, a couple referral from Brother Menh, and met two new people last night who want to get baptized. God dumped blessings this weekend. He is taking good good care of us. I am so grateful.
I get to talk to my family this week... I get to talk to my family this week. Yay! I am really excited. Although forty minutes kind of bites but obedience is worth the blessings.
We are going to go caroling as a district this week and I can hardly wait, it is going to be magical. I am going to pray for more snow again and hopefully have a white Christmas. I love you family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!
December 13, 2010 Stephanie got married!!
The best news of the last week was that Stephanie got married!!!!!! Which means that when she quits smoking she can get baptized! I am so excited. It was so neat to be at their marriage. It was the two of us, her 3 kids, and Brian's sister. Amazing. I am so happy for them. We were over there teaching them on Friday night and Jorin the 4 year old found out that my boots are really slippery and started sliding down my legs like they were a slide. I wish I could keep him.
We got to see Michael and Mandy one last time last night and if I stay in the area then I may be able to attend his baptism if it is soon enough. He will be attending church at the same building with a different ward. Yay! We had some fun with them last night which I will send you pictures of. Brother Speakman is really into Highlander so they have a Lot of swords. Allow me to demonstrate.
Paul and Angela are a Christmas miracle. I will wait until I can give all the details but let's just say that people have big hearts and I love them for helping us create Christmas for this family.
Here's something that you should know. I eat anything now. Literally anything. There is no food that I can think of that I dislike. And to prove myself herewith I even ate Tuna on Sunday just to be sure. I eat green beans out of choice lately. Really, there is nothing that I won't eat. All pickiness is gone. It's pretty great. But if I could I would eat hummus all the time.
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