Ted Heathers Dog

 Sister Applebee

Sister Leis, Applebee, Jensen, Stapley

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are, it's almost August! I can't believe it. It's been a lovely week, and VERY warm! We've had to take some breaks in the shade so we didn't get heat stroke! The work here continues to progress very slowly but we are doing our best with what we've got! We got some good news yesterday. Right at the start of personal study, President called and informed us that we will be getting a car for the next two weeks and that we should come pick it up from the mission office on Tuesday! So you can imagine we are pretty excited about that. This means we can get places SO much faster and we can get so much more done!

This week was full of a LOT of tracting. We had a lesson on Tuesday with Heather and we took a recent convert called Ceri with us. She is 22 yrs old and she LOVED it. She told us afterward that she has been thinking about serving a mission and solidified her desire.

This week we also discovered a couple new parts of our area. It's SO MASSIVE! If it was in Idaho or Utah you could probably fit 5 stakes inside of it. Haha. We went to two areas, once called Abercarn and the other is called Crosskeys. Abercarn turned out to be a really successful area and we found a new investigator called, Owen. He is so cool! He's probably in his late twenties. We knocked his door and his wife answered. She said her husband would be interested but he wasn't home at the minute. So we continued knocking the street and by the time we made our way back, he had come home and was leaving again to take the dog out for a walk. He stopped us and asked us about the Book of Mormon we left at his house! He told us that he is super open and he loves learning about other faiths. He said that he will give anything a try and he wouldn't be one to say that he knows everything. One of my favourite things he said was that he doesn't want to be like a Pharisee in the time of Christ, who saw Him before their eyes and all they wanted to do was kill Him. We went back the next day to teach him and it was mostly just answering his questions. He asked us what was up about all the "mormon stereotypes" and wanted to hear from us what the truth is. He's so cool! We have a lot of faith in him and we'll be seeing him more this week as well.

We also met a lady called Judith. She was in our area book as a former investigator, who had only been taught once, and her record had no reason for why she was dropped. So we stopped by her and she let us in! She's super interesting... In a good way! She is really into health and natural foods and medicines and she's working on writing a book about it right now. She also has a super strong faith in God. She told us that she is just always thinking about God and how she wants to please Him and her whole life work is just to help people. So we're excited to teach her again tonight after P-day.

This Sunday was a lovely meeting! We got a new bishopric and the Bishop was released and called in the Stake. So there are some fun changes going on in the ward and I think we may be getting a new ward mission leader as well.

I have been thinking a lot about compassion this week. I'd like to share an experience I had this week as we were tracting. It was in the early afternoon and we had just begun knocking a street. The first person who opened the door said his name was Ray, and he said, "Oh wow, they've got sisters now!" So we knew he knew who we were. We asked him how he knew about us and he said that his son used to meet with the Elders. He then told us that his son had passed away about a year ago, as he was cycling on the street and was hit by a car. He seemed in control of his emotions as he was telling us and we offered our sympathy. We tried to turn the conversation to the gospel and asked him about his personal beliefs. He said that he did believe in God but he didn't feel he believed in him enough to ever commit to a faith. Well, he continued speaking, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. I noticed his lip start to tremble and he hastily reached out to hug me. (Missionaries really aren't supposed to hug the opposite gender), but the spirit constrained me from doing anything about it. I hugged him back, and as I did, I could feel his body slightly trembling. It was only a quick hug but filled with so much emotion. He said that he had to go, apologised, and then went inside. I think I was so shocked by what had happened that as we walked away, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. I felt so much compassion and love toward this stranger, and just wished I could so something to help him. We agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate for us to go back and try to give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet but we would go back soon.  The dictionary describes compassion as: a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” I searched the subject of compassion on lds.org and found this as well:  "Compassion motivates us to give service to the poor and needy. When we follow Jesus’ example and serve those who suffer, they receive relief and blessings. But those who serve also receive blessings of joy, happiness, fulfillment, and even forgiveness (see Mosiah 4:26). If we are to be like Jesus, the service we give others must be motivated by the pure love of Christ. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve taught:“Even the most extreme acts of service—such as giving all of our goods to feed the poor—profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ”

I hope and pray that each of us can find someone to reach out to in compassion this week; to share that pure love of Christ with our brothers and sisters.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Almost August

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are, it's almost August! I can't believe it. It's been a lovely week, and VERY warm! We've had to take some breaks in the shade so we didn't get heat stroke! The work here continues to progress very slowly but we are doing our best with what we've got! We got some good news yesterday. Right at the start of personal study, President called and informed us that we will be getting a car for the next two weeks and that we should come pick it up from the mission office on Tuesday! So you can imagine we are pretty excited about that. This means we can get places SO much faster and we can get so much more done!

This week was full of a LOT of tracting. We had a lesson on Tuesday with Heather and we took a recent convert called Ceri with us. She is 22 yrs old and she LOVED it. She told us afterward that she has been thinking about serving a mission and solidified her desire.

This week we also discovered a couple new parts of our area. It's SO MASSIVE! If it was in Idaho or Utah you could probably fit 5 stakes inside of it. Haha. We went to two areas, once called Abercarn and the other is called Crosskeys. Abercarn turned out to be a really successful area and we found a new investigator called, Owen. He is so cool! He's probably in his late twenties. We knocked his door and his wife answered. She said her husband would be interested but he wasn't home at the minute. So we continued knocking the street and by the time we made our way back, he had come home and was leaving again to take the dog out for a walk. He stopped us and asked us about the Book of Mormon we left at his house! He told us that he is super open and he loves learning about other faiths. He said that he will give anything a try and he wouldn't be one to say that he knows everything. One of my favourite things he said was that he doesn't want to be like a Pharisee in the time of Christ, who saw Him before their eyes and all they wanted to do was kill Him. We went back the next day to teach him and it was mostly just answering his questions. He asked us what was up about all the "mormon stereotypes" and wanted to hear from us what the truth is. He's so cool! We have a lot of faith in him and we'll be seeing him more this week as well.

We also met a lady called Judith. She was in our area book as a former investigator, who had only been taught once, and her record had no reason for why she was dropped. So we stopped by her and she let us in! She's super interesting... In a good way! She is really into health and natural foods and medicines and she's working on writing a book about it right now. She also has a super strong faith in God. She told us that she is just always thinking about God and how she wants to please Him and her whole life work is just to help people. So we're excited to teach her again tonight after P-day.

This Sunday was a lovely meeting! We got a new bishopric and the Bishop was released and called in the Stake. So there are some fun changes going on in the ward and I think we may be getting a new ward mission leader as well.

I have been thinking a lot about compassion this week. I'd like to share an experience I had this week as we were tracting. It was in the early afternoon and we had just begun knocking a street. The first person who opened the door said his name was Ray, and he said, "Oh wow, they've got sisters now!" So we knew he knew who we were. We asked him how he knew about us and he said that his son used to meet with the Elders. He then told us that his son had passed away about a year ago, as he was cycling on the street and was hit by a car. He seemed in control of his emotions as he was telling us and we offered our sympathy. We tried to turn the conversation to the gospel and asked him about his personal beliefs. He said that he did believe in God but he didn't feel he believed in him enough to ever commit to a faith. Well, he continued speaking, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. I noticed his lip start to tremble and he hastily reached out to hug me. (Missionaries really aren't supposed to hug the opposite gender), but the spirit constrained me from doing anything about it. I hugged him back, and as I did, I could feel his body slightly trembling. It was only a quick hug but filled with so much emotion. He said that he had to go, apologised, and then went inside. I think I was so shocked by what had happened that as we walked away, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. I felt so much compassion and love toward this stranger, and just wished I could so something to help him. We agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate for us to go back and try to give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet but we would go back soon.  The dictionary describes compassion as: a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” I searched the subject of compassion on lds.org and found this as well:  "Compassion motivates us to give service to the poor and needy. When we follow Jesus’ example and serve those who suffer, they receive relief and blessings. But those who serve also receive blessings of joy, happiness, fulfillment, and even forgiveness (see Mosiah 4:26). If we are to be like Jesus, the service we give others must be motivated by the pure love of Christ. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve taught:“Even the most extreme acts of service—such as giving all of our goods to feed the poor—profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ”

I hope and pray that each of us can find someone to reach out to in compassion this week; to share that pure love of Christ with our brothers and sisters.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Challenging but wonderful!

Dear Family & Friends,

Can you believe there's only 3 more of these? I can't! I'm sorry if I'm not as descriptive as I used to be in these emails! I will do my best :) If there's anything that I feel at this point more than anything, it's exhuastion!!! I'm not complaining, because I know it's what I should be feeling, but I just feel bad when I'm struggling during sunday school to stay awake!! Forgive me family if I sleep for a few days :)

This week has been challenging but wonderful as well. Monday after p-day was crazy. We were supposed to get a lift to a lesson with Amy from a member but the member called and cancelled on us about an hour before the appointment so we had to cut our pday short to bike there. It was in a little village called Pantside and if it wasn't for the hills, it would have only taken us about 20 minutes to get there but we had to get off our bikes and push for a lot of it. I know, we're whimps. It was worth it though because the lesson went great. Amy is the sweetest and we got a Return Appointment with her.  It was a short lesson, only 30 mintues because we had to bike to a LA's, Lynn, who was feeding us at 7:30 and that took us about an hour to get there. Again, not because it's super far, but because of the hills! We had dinner with Lynn and then read from the BOM with her.

Tuesday was great. I had my final Zone Meeting :'( and everyone sang happy birthday to me and gave me a card. We came home after and then did some finding. Some members called us and asked if we wanted to come out with them on splits to help them do their Visiting Teaching. So I went with one of the ladies and it was lovely. We taught Christy this week as well, she was the one who has a member friend. So her friend came to the lesson and we talked about God as our loving Heavenly Father and about prayer and the atonement. It was good. She is still hesitant to come to church but she wants to start coming to youth. We also got two new investigators, Susan and Martin! They are both Christian but Martin has been meeting with the JW's so we've gotta get him while we can! Ha. Just kidding :) He had SOOO many questions so we got an appointment with them for this week.

Heather is doing great! We taught her twice this week and she has such wonderful questions. We taught her the restoration and I think it helped to put everything together for her. We're hoping to commit her to a baptismal date this week and hopefully she can get baptised this transfer!! Please pray for Heather! :D

On Saturday we went to one of the little villages we haven't been to yet. It's super far away so not accessible by bikes. We got a lift there and then got a bus back. But it was such a ghost town! We were able to stop by some of the members there and one of them was a 92 year old woman called May Pavey. She is so lovely!! We sang her favourite hymn for her, which was How Great Thou Art. She tried her best to sing along but couldn't really. Then she offered to say a prayer and it was so beautiful. She just had so much gratitude to Heavenly Father for being a member of the gospel and she made us all cry! I hope I can be like that when i'm old and wrinkly :) We also stopped by a LA couple, the Probert's. They're in the 80's and haven't been to church in a long time. We had a good chat with them and talked about coming back to church. The husband, Harry isn't as interested as his wife is but he didn't say no! So We're going to go back and start re-teaching them which is HUGE. We called the Bishop and he was ecstatic to hear that. S

o at the moment we're doing our best with what we have! I love Wales though. It's so beautiful and the people are very friendly! I love the gospel! I love being a missionary! It is the best.  I really am enjoying my last few weeks. The Lord is truly blessing me and I just feel so at peace. Thank you all for your love and your prayers!

Love you so much!

Sister Jensen

The Davises and their son Phil

The District

Mike and Jean from Wales

Mike and Jean

Tiring Week with so much finding!

Dear Family and Friends,

      Well, it's been a very tiring week! But the Lord is blessing us. We've been doing so much finding, which in this area is just tracting. We've had a couple of miracles! Last week we tracted this street and we GQ-ed a kid called Jago. He wasn't interested at the time but we gave him a mormon.org card and invited him to check it out. Well, later this week, we got a headquarter referral with the name of Jago and he had requested a BOM. So, we went to the address, knocked the door and his Mum answers. She told us she was really busy and was about the close the door when we said we were looking for her son. Then she just opened up to us and was really nice and kept apologizing for turning us away. Haha. Well, she then called her son's phone and we got to talk to him. He told us to call him in a couple weeks after school finished then we could come by.

Well, we continued knocking in that area and we met a girl called Christy. She wasn't very interested at first but the more we got talking she started opening up and told her about a friend she has that's a mormon. She said she always seems happy so maybe it has something to do with her faith. Her friend lives only about 20 minutes away so we got a return appointment with Christy and she said she would call her friend to see if she wanted to come for the appt as well! Well, later in the week, we were talking with one of the members and he asked us if we had met a girl called Christy. We said yes, and he told us that his sister is her friend and that Christy had gotten in contact with her and she is planning to come to the appt! Talk about planting seeds and being a good example! :)

     Yesterday we were knocking around this little village called Pantside. We me a family on the way home who have two little kids and just got married about 10 weeks ago. They are super nice and said we could come back so we will be going round this evening.

     We're also working with a LA lady called Lynn. She is really bitter at the moment about some things that happened in the past with some of the members and she struggles to read and pray and come to church. We visited her this week and she is going to be really tough! But the good news is that she came to church this week and we'll be going to see her tonight as well.

     Saturday we were asked to come and present a little class about missionary work to the Young Women for their personal progress. Most of the YW in this ward are converts and the only members in their family! It's so different than what it's like in the states and it's so challenging for these girls. There were only three that showed up. Well, we stuck around afterwards for lunch and the YW president pulled us aside. She told us about some of these challenges these girls are facing and how horrible it has been for them. I definitely feel that the world is more wicked here than it is in Idaho/Utah, and it is becoming more and more apparent that these are the last days. My heart breaks for this girls and I feel we are here largely to help them and be an example to them. Many of them have never even seen Sister Missionaries before! It is heartbreaking to see where they are and all they have to go through and know that if they just kept the commandments they would be happy. But of course everyone has to go through their own learning experiences.

      In many of our interactions with people, we get the same question: If there is a God, why do all the bad things happen in the world? Wouldn't he stop it? It's frustrating because we hear that question probably twenty times every day and it's difficult to give someone an answer that will make sense in a short conversation. It seems that everyone wants the answers but not badly enough to get down on their knees in humility and ask God. No one can know of spiritual truths without prayer. I can feel the influence of the adversary more here than I have before in any of my previous areas. Satan has a great hold on the hearts of the people and it is always linked to pride. It is only when we're humble that we can learn. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that my hope and faith is centered on Jesus Christ. The end is near and everything that is unfair in life CAN be made right through the atonement. I feel very strongly that angels surround us and protect us every day and that this is the most important work any of us will every do! I plead with each of you to stand up and defend your beliefs. Stay in Lord's territory and stand up for truth. Be in the world but not of the world, because as soon as you step onto the devil's territory, you no longer have the spirit and you are under his influence. I testify that you will be protected and strengthened as you choose to do what's right and follow in the Saviour's footsteps.

    I love you all dearly and pray for you daily! All my love,

         Sister Jensen 

Sister Stapley

Wonderful people

Transfered to Wales!!

Dear Family & Friends, Wow, it has been a whirlwind of a week!!! I'm not really sure where to start!! Monday was the day of transfer dodge! So we mostly just did our emailing and shopping and got ready for the coming week. That evening we all had dinner with the missionaries and all the recent converts and investigators to say goodbye. During the dinner, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and gave me a bouquet of flowers and a card. It was a great birthday surprise! We got a text from President during the dinner asking us to call him. So I went into the bathroom and called him and he thanked me and released me from my calling as a Sister Training Leader. So at this point I was pretty certain I would leave! We went home shortly after and got ready for bed. The dodge call came at 10:30.... I was going to Blackwood with Sister Stapley!!! So this means that we would be "pinkwashing" (we would replace a set of Elders). I was super excited! Blackwood is in Wales by the way, really near to Cardiff and Caerphilly. So Tuesday was full of saying goodbyes. It was very hard to say goodbye to many of the people there. I will miss each of them so much. Well, on Wednesday we got all ready to go and drove to the mission office for transfers. It was nice to see some familiar faces! I was fortunate enough to borrow a bike off of one of the sisters who will be a STL so that was good! After about an hour, I met up with my companion Sister Stapley (she just got released as a Sister Training Leader in Birmingham) and we got on the Coach to drive to Wales. It was about an hour and a half drive to Cardiff, where we got off and met up with the other set of Elders who are serving in Blackwood. They helped us with our bikes and luggage and we got on a train. It was about 20 minutes on the train to our stop. We talked to some girls on the train. The welsh accent is really different to the English and it took me some time to process what they were saying! Everything on the signs is in English and Welsh and I can't pronounce any of it. Haha. The welsh people are SO much friendlier as well! They just want to talk to us for ages. It's great! haha. So we got off the train, then had to get a bus. AFter the bus, it was a 20 minute walk to our flat. I felt so bad for one of the poor elders! He is a new missionary and he was carrying Sister Stapley's bag the whole time because one of her wheels broke off. Haha the poor Elder was just sweating the whole time! Luckily my bags have held up really well, so thanks Dad! Well we made it to the flat and just as we did a car pulled over and a lady got out. She told us her name was Sister Tamlyn and she asked if we needed any groceries. (Our Flat is right across the street from the grocery store). We said that we did and she was SO nice! She went and got us a few things to hold us over until P-day. Well, the Elders left and we explored our flat. They Elders had actually done a decent job getting it ready for us. Their cupboards were just full of loads of canned food haha so we were really grateful for Sister Tamlyn. Well at this point it was already 8:00 so we just took our dinner hour and tried to get settled in. Then it was Thursday! So my birthday! In the morning we got ready and did our personal study because we had to leave at 9 to make it to coordination at 10 at the chapel. Let me tell you, this is probably the HILLIEST area in the mission. The Elders warned us of it when we came and they were right. Blackwood is just a valley surrounded by massive hills and our area is all the neighboring villages that sit on top of the hills! haha. So the hill to the chapel is super long and steep. It took us about 45 minutes to get the the chapel from our house although it's probably only a mile and a half away. Well, we made it to coordination and it was with our stand-in WML, Ed. Apparently our real WML doesn't do his calling and doesn't often come to church. Well after that we had district meeting. In our district is us, the Blackwood Elders and the Caerphilly elders. They are all really nice. District meeting went well and then we had district Lunch. There is a small tesco express next to the chapel so we all walked over to get something to eat. After district meeting we decided to stop by our real WML. Just as we were biking in the drive, they were pulling out to leave somewhere and they invited us to have dinner with them on Friday. Well after that we went and taught they Elder's only investigator, Heather. She is in her mid 50's and has been to church a few times, and is just waiting for that confirmation before she gets baptised. She's really really nice though. The rest of the day was spent working around our area and getting to know it better. We did meet Amy and Garrith, brother and sister and got a return appointment with them. Friday was rain, rain, rain, all day long!!! We got caught in it on our bikes and we just got completely drenched! It wasn't the most productive day as we were trying to get places and severely underestimated how long it would take to get there! haha. Well the Dinner appointment went well with the Davies family. Saturday was a great day with so many miracles! We have been picking streets to knock and we picked a couple streets in a village called Newbridge. It was getting toward the end of the day, around 6:30 and we were both fasting. We were knocking this treet and a lady opened. She's probably in her early 20's. At first she didn't seem interested but as we testified about the nature of Heavenly Father, she started to open up and she asked us if we would like to come in! So we went in and started teaching her. She had so many questions. Not long after, her partner and 2 little girls came in as well. The girls belong to them but both from different relationships. So we taught them all together and they loved it! We taught them how to pray and we said a prayer with them and gave them a Book of Mormon. The lady, Jenna, said she loved it and had goosebumps the whole time we were there. We got her information and she said we could come back on Tuesday! It was such a miracle! Sister Stapley and I were just so excited. We had a massive hill to bike back up to get home but it didn't matter because we were so happy. Well, of course when you're doing the most good, you experience the most opposition, because just as we were biking up the hill, the thing that switches the gears on the chain of my bike completely broke off, making it impossible to bike. So we walked the rest of the way home! We met some cool people along the way though. It was so great and a testimony of how the Lord will bless you if you are willing, obedient and hard-working! The next day was Sunday. We walked to church and the members were all so welcoming! They are very excited to have Sisters in the ward as it has been a long time. I was again able to put my piano skills to use as well and that was a blessing. Heather came to church and loved it! The DAvies, the WML and his family asked us to come for dinner again so we went there after. After lunch as we were walking, we met a girl, Grace who is so sweet and interested in meeting with us! We made our way home, put our quads in the flat, and then did some more tracting. We came back in for dinner, call-ins and study. It has been a wonderful and tiring couple of days! My body is aching from the hills but it's all a reminder of how grateful I am to be serving here and for the miracles Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I am so mindful of his love and I feel it all around me up here in Wales. It's very different than serving in the city as we rarely see anyone out and about, but it's great becasue it almost feels like I'm camping! haha. I am really loving it and looking forward to this coming week. Oh, also an update on Coventry! Sister Bertha replaced me there and they have been doing great! Bryan and Edison are both on baptismal dates for July 26th, and John bore his testimony in sacrament meeting! Unfortunately I won't be able to go back for their baptisms because it's so far away but i'm just so happy for all of them and know they're in good care.I love you all so much and hope you're having a great week. Love, Sister Jensen

Pretty Good Week

Dear Family & Friends!!! Hello!!! Well, It's been a pretty good week!! On Monday night had two appointments. We went and visited a recent convert family and did a family home evening with them. After that we had a Dinner appointment with the Bishop and his family. It went really well. After that was Dodge Night! So we found out what is happening this transfer. They usually call us around ten o clock but they didn't call until about ten twenty seven! So we were freaking out. Finally the call came and we found out that... we are both staying for another transfer! So I was pretty happy about that. Tuesday was the day before transfers but for us it was just another missionary day. We did some finding, taught some lessons and then in the evening we got to drive to Birmingham to see a baptism of someone that Sister Gardner taught. It was in a place called Stourbridge. It was such a great baptism. After that we came back and met with Sarah and her friend Kristina. We had dinner with them and then talked about the gospel. It went really well! Wednesday was transfers. In the morning we went to family history with John! It was so awesome! I even got to look back in my lines a little bit and I found one of my ancestors was actually born in Coventry and christened at the St. Michaels cathedral, which we walk by almost every day!! John loved it and is looking forward to coming again next week! We taught some lessons and did some finding and then we went to ward coordination and we had a sports night after with our investigators and recent converts. The rest of the week was pretty normal. Just some awesome missionary work! It was so nice to be able to stay in the area all week as we didn't have any exchanges. We're still teaching Tyler and he's doing really well! He took us out to chinese food again and we taught him about the 10 commandments. He's struggling with the tea part of the word of wisdom because tea is such a huge part of the chinese culture. Please pray for him this week! He is scheduled to be baptised in June. He even came finding with us once this week and LOVED it! It was so funny! He asked to come out with us again. We also met with our recent convert and she brought two of her friends for us to teach! Well, that's basically it for the week! We're being blessed and finding new people to teach. It's going to be a great transfer especially heading into the summertime! This week in gospel principles I learned something really cool. Our teacher was talking about faith, hope and charity. He said that often we think faith is a belief but actually, hope is believing something that you can't see and faith is the action that you make because of your hope. Charity is the love that motivates you to have hope and to act in faith. I loved that definition and I felt that it helped me to understand it better. I'm so grateful for the pure love that my Saviour offers me! As I was pondering during the sacrament today, I the words of "I Feel My Saviour's Love" went through my head. The last line says, "The love he freely gives me" It made me think, do I give my love freely or does it come with a price? With some people, it's easy to give love away but with others it can be more difficult! :) But i want to try to just love others like the Saviour does, with a love that does not end! That is my challenge to you this week! I love you all so much! Have a great week :) Sister Jensen

Another Week Gone

Dear Family & Friends, Wow, another week gone! It's been such a great week. Monday after P-day, we got to visit a less active family, The Kamara's. The mom has cancer and is recovering at the moment so it's very difficult for her to make it to church on a Sunday. But it was wonderful being in their home and feeling their spirit. They are from Africa and have the cutest boy and girl. They made us laugh until we were crying and we were also able to have a great spiritual thought with them. We will see them again this week and invite them to read the Book of Mormon together as a family. Tuesday was zone conference! My last one... :( We had to leave quite early so we could give the Elders a ride and we made it there by about 9:30. It was SO great. President did some training on how we need to accept and even seek for correction from the Lord so we can improve. It was a great meeting. I was also asked to give my departing testimony with about 8 other missionaries who will go home this week or next transfer. Sister Hanks was there too! We sat next to each other, and cried as we thought back on the last 16 1/2 months. It was a very surreal moment! I remember exactly a year ago at the same Zone Conference when my trainer, Sister Lewis, was giving her testimony and preparing to go home. Well, after the conference we went on exchanges. I went to DeMontfort with Sister Bournemann. She is from Denmark and is so nice. We were on bikes and let me tell you, it felts SOOOO good to be on a bike again!! Haha. I felt like I was flying. We taught some lessons that evening and then did finding the next day. It was a really good exchange. We exchanged back around three and then came back and taught a lesson to this new guy called Jason. He is from china and is seriously SO nice! We taught him with one of the chinese RC's CC. She was perfect. He committed to church and even said he would like to bring his girlfriend, Joanna. Then we had ward coordination and discussed the preparations that would be needed for the baptism on Friday. (Some sad news, unfortunately Steve just wasn't ready to be baptised so he didn't make his date. But we will continue teaching him and hopefully see him progress!) Well, Thursday was a crazy day! We saw Tyler at ten and taught him. Then we met one of the senior sisters in the ward at her allottment to help her out. It was so fun doing some gardening! Haha. Then we ran and grabbed a bite to eat from Subway and went to help our recent convert John to paint his new flat. We did that for about an hour and then went to pick up Poppy (a RC) to go teaching with us. We then went to teach Amy at the chapel! Amy is the cute girl that we met last transfer. She has been home in China but made it back this week. She brought us back little gifts, one of which is my surname, painted in beautiful letters. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it and remembered how we had taught her that she is a daughter of God last time. She said she needs more time before she commits to a date but I know we will get there. After that, we came home for dinner then went to teach Bryan! Bryan is doing SO well!!! He is really starting to understand the restoration and he is becoming one of my favourite people to teach. He committed to a date for July 26th and i really think he will make it. In the lesson he even referred to the church, as "our" church! So we are really excited for him. He texted us later on in the week and said that he had been reading the Book of Mormon and he can feel it transforming him. Wow! It's so cool when someone with a really strong christian background, who reveres the Bible, is humble enough to put Moroni's promise to the test. It strengthens my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the power that it has to change our hearts. Well, Friday was a crazy day as we did our weekly planning and made all the preparations for the baptism and the activity afterwards. We were in charge of putting together another hot pot night so we had to find all the pots from investigators and RC's and get the food for it. We prepped everything around 5:00 pm and the baptism started at 6:30. I was asked to sing a song, "I Feel My Saviour's Love". Haha, afterwards, Irene, one of the RC's showed me the recording that she had made on her phone. Haha. Maybe I can get her to send it to you. The baptism went really well. Three people were baptised and there was a good turnout from the ward.We also had 3 of our investigators show up and stay for the activity after. Saturday morning was football and it was raining! But we decided to stick it out and we were glad we did because some of our investigator's ended up coming and we all had a great time. We came back for lunch then we got a text from our former investigator, Kristina saying that she still had one of the baptismal dresses and we could come get it if we wanted. So we went by and the poor girl was super stressed, preparing for her final exams. We offered to clean her house and we did while she studied. Then Sarah Fox showed up and we all had a chat! There's been this documentary that showed her a couple nights ago called, "Meet the Mormons" and there's been a big hype about that. So they were asking us questions about it and we were trying our best to answer them. The documentary was focused on a missionary and what it's like. It wasn't done by the church and apparently it was pretty rubbish from what we've heard from the members. They told us that they really dramatized the home-sickness, and didn't even show any teaching or baptisms. Ha. So that's been a fun one to deal with. Luckly, our RC's and investigators have handled it well and it's opening more doors for us! Just a testimony that when you try to kick the church, you always kick it upstairs! Someone even approached the Elders in city centre the other day and told them how much more he respects them after watching the film. Well, Saturday night we came in a bit early as Sister Gardner and I have been experiencing some weird stomach issues. Ha. Possibly a mild case of stomach flu/food poisoning. BUT! Don't worry Mum!!! It's not bad. :) And Sister Rasmussen is taking good care of us! Sunday was a wonderful day! Jason brought his girlfriend to church and they both loved it! We had a dinner appointment with the Bishop's family after church and then had a lesson with Tyler. He is still really struggling but we're just happy he agrees to meet with us. We came in for dinner afterwards and to do call-ins and comp study. It was a great week! And this week should be exciting as well. We'll get the dodge call tonight so we're all pretty excited/nervous to see what will happen. Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you enjoy celebrating the 4th of July! I will be wearing red white and blue! Love you all so much XXX Sister Jensen