Merry Christmas!!!!

Hello, Y'all!!!

I hope all of you had a safe and wonderful Chrismas! I know that our savior lived, died and lives again just for all of our sins to be forgiven and forgotton! I absolutely loved Christmas here in the amazing and wonderful state of Tennessee! It was my first Christmas being away from family but I felt like I was home because of the people that I have met here! They all feel like family to me! Okay, Im rambling to much so, let's get started shall we?

To start of the week we had Zone Confrence and Exchanges! Both were wonderful! For Zone Confrence on Tuesday they surprised all of us with amazing videos to all of the missionaries from our families back home! At the beginning of Zone Confrence President Pickett had all of the departing missionaries that were leaving to go home on Wednesday share their testimonies. The spirit in that room was so strong and so beautiful!! I loved every second of zone confrence. Towards the end to make things fun, all the zones put together skitts for everyone which were Halarious! Oh, I almost forgot. I FINALLY got to meet my mission "grandma" at zone confrence this week. Which was the trainer of my trainer, which makes her my Grandma! haha oh my goodness she was the sweetest.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges and I was with Sister Furgeson. She is the sweetest missionary. When we first got to the STL's apartment after Zone Confrence we had to go straight to a dinner apointment with a member in the STL's ward in Cookeville. We had Chicken corn on Blue and these AMAZING homemade breadsticks which were so fluffy and soft. Sister Erickson says that the breading tasted like gold fish which I couldnt taste. haha. After that we met with the STL's investigator Holly who is the sweetest. She is a young mom with 4 ROWDY kids. I think the lesson went okay, it was really hard to feel the spirit because her kids kept jumping all over the place haha.

On Wednesday to wrap up exchanges Sister Furgeson and I went tracting in the rain. My shoes guys were soaked after that. But I think it was worth it! After that we got to meet with Steve who is another new investigator. He is a single dad who lives with his son Noah. When we walked into his house he told us that his son Noah ran away that morning. It was amazing because he still was willing to let us in and teach him a little. He had a ton of questions about our church since he currently doesnt have a church that he goes to. We were able to answer all of his questions and handed him a Book of Mormon and said that he will read it. It went really well.

Friday we had Interviews with President Pickett! President told me in the interview that I had a 90% chance that I might leave Lebanon next transfer, but I am okay with it because I know that I have spent my time here in Lebanon. I've been here for 5 months after all. Haha.

Saturday was also another good day in the mission feild. We had a lesson with Ben which went really  well. We taught him the plan of salvation. He was really focused and understood everything.When we first arrived there He came over to us and handed us this sweet card. He told us "this is for y'all since I wont get to see y'all on christmas." (picture of the card is down below.) Him giving us that card made both mine and sister Ericksons day! He is doing so well and progressing so much! We are so excited for his baptism date.

CHRISTMAS EVE! It was such a blessed day (as they say here in the south) BEN CAME TO CHURCH! It was the best sacrament meeting for him to come to as well! I have never felt the spirit so strongly that meeting. After church even though it was raining cats on dogs we went tracting and gained 3 new investigators! What an amazing experince y'all! We ran into a older man named Lawrance and he seemed really interested. We told him about the plan of salvation because he also had some questions about where we go to after this life. We also gave him a book of mormon which he told us that he would read that as well and we scheduled a time to come back. After tracting we went straight to the Wilsons (a family in our ward) for Chirstmas Eve dinner. Sister Wilson let us decorate her tree. Which was so so nice of her. After that we had a couple of hours to spare before we hit the hay so we watched Mr. Krooger's Christmas on our tiny DVD player and wrapped up our night.

On Christmas morning we woke up and went down stairs to open up our presents. I loved and am so grateful for all the presents that I got. After we opened presents we went over to the church and had a district breakfast, decorated Gingerbread houses and made the Lego Christmas Nativity set that my Grandma Jensen got me (Thanks Grandma!). We then went over to momma tays and skyped our families. Tender mercy of the day right there. I really enjoyed being able to talk to everyone! After skyping with our families we went to the Keefes and had some Christmas dinner although it was at 2pm haha. They had roast beef, mashed patatos and vegetables. While we were there we were able to watch the testaments video with them:)! After the keefe's we went over to the Bailey's (another family in our ward) and played some games with their family. Which was so fun! We got home and just wrapped up our wonderful christmas night.

I am so greatful for this gospel and am so greatful to be a missionary during this beautiful season. Christmas in the misson field was amazing and something worth while.

I love y'all and hope you have a wonderful and blessed week!

Love,
Sister Jensen

Quotes of the week:
"After this present you will both be able to speak spanish!"- Elder Lopez

Scripture of the week:
Matthew 7
7. "Ask, and it shall be given you; Seek and ye shalll find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."

8. "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth"and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." 

With sister stevens, my mission grandma ! :)

 sister erickson dressed up like a cowgirl. haha  

Ben's cute card. 

Christmas nativity lego set

our gingerbread house! 

I did a face mask with sister Ericksons help!

Exchanges! 

Blessings galore!

Hello, my dear family and friends! This week has been really good. So much has happened this past week and I'm sure y'all want to hear all about it. So here we GOOOOO..

Lets start off this email with Thursday shall we? So, on Thursday we had district meeting and we ate at Cracker berral for lunch with the district. It was really good. I had Meatloaf and mashed patatos. after Cracker barriel we were walking to the car and walked past Cynthia's work so jokingly were like we should stop by and see if shes there because we havnt been able to get a hold of her for this past month and we were terrified if she has been ignoring us. We saw this cart out side with the door open and all of the sudden we see Cynthia walk out of the room!!! We immedienlty ran over to her and said hello! It turned out that she was just really busy with work and family. She told us to not to worry because she hasnt stopped reading the Book of Mormon and still wants to get baptized! She also told us she's going to try to come to church on Christmas Eve so that she can get baptized on the 30th of this month! So please pray that she will be able to come!

We were also able to talk to Chrissy again and bring them a treat. She told us that Cory's younger brother Toby wants to get baptised as well! She said that she wasnt really suprised about it because he is a person that loves religion and stuff like that. So that was a huge blessing to us!

On Sunday. We were sitting in relief socitey when all the sudden the primary president waves us over and asked us if we can teach a primary class last minute. So of course we said yes and we were going to have to really think about it. We were lead to the main primary room and all the sudden we hear all the primary kids yell MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! and The primary presidentcy pulls out a huge box that was rapped in rapping paper. So, We got to hang out in primary and decorate cookies with them! It was the sweetest suprise! We also got to go to a baptism that was for a little girl in our ward who is the sweetest.

One thing that I almost forgot to mention this week we had a wonderful lesson with Anne. We read 3 nephi chapter 11 with her and had a great lesson about baptism. She agreed with everything that we taught her about it. We didnt put her on date though because something felt a little wrong about asking.

Well, thats it for this weeks email. I love the gospil with all my heart and soul. I know that I made a correct choice about serving a mission. I  love everything about it. It has really  changed me and has really increased the knoweledge of the gospil.

Hope y'all have a great week!

love y'all,

Sister Jensen

Scripture of the week:
Alma 31:38

We painted miss Lucy's hands she loved it!! 

 love these cute primary children!

"SANTAAA... Oh my gosh!!! I Know him, I know him!!"

Hello, my dear family and friends!

I hope y'all had a great week!  This week was good lots of up and downs this week but it ended on a good note! :) So bet y'all are dying to hear about my week so, lets get started shall we!

Monday such a good day! We went on a hike (well, more like a little walk) in the Cedars of Lebanon state park. We took our Christmas card picures and just had fun with our little district. Later that night we went over to the Westbrooks for FHE and we watched the Christmas devotional, drank some Egg Nog and just hung out. Towards the ending of FHE the Westbrooks told us that we were going to go to the food drive to  donate some cans and they asked us if we wanted to come with. We of course said yes, thinking that we were going to do service. We got in the car and drove over by our chuch building. As we were passing we saw a field with a bunch of dancing Christmas lights. I had asked the Westbrooks on Sunday to see if it was worth going to go see because I had wanted to go for so long. Anyways as we were driving by the lights (or so I thought we were driving by)I told them "those are the lights I want to go see!!" and Bro. Westbrook said "well, maybe you can come back in like january or something to go see them!" And THEN sure enough he turned right into the christmas lights! Sister Erickson and I were like ""what?!!!" Mama Tay and Bro. Westbrook both laughed and said it was so worth it seeing the look of suprise on our faces. After the lights we went inside and feed some llamas that they had there at the dancing lights.  It was a great ending to our night.

Saturday was another great day in the mission field! The elders found this event that was happing here in Lebanon on facebook and it looked like there was going to be a lot of people there. So we decided to get everything organized and go over and set up a table and hand out lighttheworld cards with hot chocolate. We scrambled everything together last minute. haha it ended up being so worth it! We stood out in the cold for 5 hours handing out hot chocolate and Light the world cards. We ended up handing out all 250 cards that day! Kaleb (our ward mission leader), was a huge help for it -- without his help I dont think we would have been so successfull! so shout out to our amazing ward mission leader! We also had our ward Christmas party that night as well. Which was fun. We talked and sang some christmas carols and got to meet santa (hence the email subject line haha).

Sunday was awesome. We went to church and fasted for our zone that our zone would have some success. Later that day we had a dinner apointment with a less active family in our ward. We were teaching her daughter Caitlyn. After dinner their grandson Benjimin who is 9 asked us if we can teach him! We told him that he has to ask his parents for permission andddd they said sure! We taught him a little bit about the restoration and guess what.... we also set him on date for baptism!! He was so excited that he right away started counting down the days towards his baptism! Fasting works people!

It is weeks like these that I know I am in a postion to help change the lives of others. It makes me so happy to see others so happy! I love being a missionary and still think that this is the best decision I have ever made. Definitly one of the hardest but so worth it! You might even say it is the hardest thing I've ever come to love.

I love and miss y'all so much!

love,
Sister Jensen

Scripture of the week:
Mosiah 12:22
"Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the lord shal bring again Zion;"

Our hike (: 

 Light the world stuff 

This licence plate says it all! 

 Gourgess sunset!! 

 our booth at the Christmas on the square!

 SANTTTAAAA!!

 Seeing the Dancing Christmas lights with the Westbrooks!!

exchanges, transfer calls and great friends!

Hello everyone!!!

Can you believe its December already?! I sure cant! It feels like just yesterday that I entered into the MTC. Now that it is December #lighttheworld has officially started!! I am loving everything about it and sharing it with the people here in Tennessee. Well, I am sure that you guys would like to here about my week! So, lets get started shall we?

Earlier this week we had a suprise visit from our mission mom Sister Pickett!  it was great because she really made us feel like we were loved and that she was thinking about us. She was headed  back home from Nashville and just decided to stop by! I love you Sister Pickett!

This week week we went on exchanges in Cookeville so fun! I was with the wonderful Sister Heart and Sister Erickson was with Sister Erkenbrack who leaves to go home on wednesday becuse she had finnished her 18 months. On exchanges we visited with this one guy named Dustin as soon as he opened the door I imedently thought back to the movie "Cinderella Story" because I kid you not, he looked exactly like Sam's best friend Carter. It was pretty scary the resemblence of it. haha while on exchanges we went to walmart to get some ice cream to celebrate Sister Erickson's 6 month mark. while we were there we ran into this young adult who looked like he was our age. He stopped us and shook our hands although we had no idea who he was at first. I thought Sister heart might have known him but she soon asked, "how do we know you?" He said that he just got back from serving in the Dominic Republic mission the day before! We saw him during our stake confrence and he later told us that he was going to pretend to be a investigator haha.

We had Transfer Calls on Saturday and we are both staying here in Lebanon! I thought for sure I was leaving but I am so glad Im staying because it felt wrong for me to leave so soon because I still feel like there is unfinnished work here. This means that Sister Erickson and I would be together for all of the big holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New years!) I am so excited for this next transfer.

I want to tell you guys that I know that this church is true and I know that the presthood is true. I can tell that my testimony has grown stronger and stronger these past 5 months I have been out here in the mission field.
well that is it for this week! Hope y'all have a wonderful week! Love y'all

love,
Sister Jensen

Scipture of the week:
Alma 19:13

Quotes of the week:
 "Who needs a man when you could eat baked mac and cheese in a wedding dress."- Sister Erickson

Elders made us breakfast! :) 

Vetrians museum 

 Selfie with a manican

 Our little distrct. 

 Sis. Erickson and I

 Celebrating Sister Ericksons click day with ice cream!

 Exhanges!

 Handing out lighttheworld waterbottles.