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