Temple with Paulina

June 24, 2013

So this week was a great week! I am loving Chile and loving the El Golf Ward they are the best and they are like my family now! I love how no matter where you go in the world you can find family through the church!

Story Time

1. Tour of the Temple with Paulina

Today was so amazing!   Today we went on the tour of the temple that the Hermanas give who live close to the temple. It was such an amazing experience for me because the spirit was so strong!  It almost brought me to tears as the spirit testified to me that the things the Hermanas were saying were true.  After a long hard week this is exactly what I needed and it was exactly what Paulina needed.  She is so sweet, she is recently baptized and doesn’t know if the church is true, but she says she will follow the commandments of this church until she gets her answer.  Even if she is super old! haha I really believe she had more faith than she gives herself credit for. I think sometimes we do this – we don’t believe in the faith we have, so every once and a while stop and ponder; what is your testimony?  I promise you if you do this you will strengthen what you have, your testimony will grow. Studying the basics is essential;  like today when I got to listen to the first lesson, the restoration, it was such a faith builder to me. That is a testimony in itself because I know lesson 1 backwards and forwards in 2 languages yet I still learn something new every time I teach it and every time I hear it. The part of the tour that was incredible was when we got to go inside of the temple (we only when in the tiny room that is before the real doors of the temple  - it was so small and had 2 chairs in it, but the spirit in this room was amazing! Before we entered in Paulina almost didn’t enter because she kept saying,  “I am not worthy,  I am not ready.” She is so cute.  She really understands the importance of entering the temple and she wants to prepare herself. Something that I learned today was the importance of preparing ourselves to enter the temple.  I have never felt the spirit so strong just entering the temple before and that helped me learn that we need to really take time to prepare ourselves to enter the temple.  It is crucial and we also need to prepare ourselves spiritually for anything that is holy, like praying reading the scriptures and taking the sacrament.

Lauren's Study Table

2. Just the Small Things Warm my Heart

This week we had our mission correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and he has a 2 and a half year old daughter named Flor. She is so cute and she has learned my name and my name only.  Tonight she said the closing prayer and she blessed me twice. It was the sweetest thing ever and I just love her so much.  I guess you could call it a tender mercy from the Lord cause it really made my day.

2 1/2 year old Flor - She is so cute!  She prays for me every night and is always saying Ghermana Jennings -  its so cute!

3. The Change in Jorge’s life

I would like to record the change I have seen in the life of Jorge and what he has told us. When we first met Jorge he had been through some turbulent times in his life due to bad choices he had made.  He had been in some rough stuff and had long hair and piercings  His life was all out of order, but he started to clean up his act and felt a longing to understand things spiritually. We got to him at a time in his life when he was ready to change. When we first taught him we taught him the Word of Wisdom http://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng and he wasn't so sure about it.  Then we lost contact with him for over 2 months.  We would visit him again and then one day he let us in.  He always likes to joke on how persistent we were. ha ha We started to teach him and it was amazing to see the transformation in him. The second lesson he had stopped smoking and drinking tea and coffee. As we taught him more about the gospel he literally looked cleaner and his life is slowly starting to find order. He always tells us how his life was so disorganized before and how he wishes that we had been Mormon his whole life. Teaching Jorge has been a joy and he is such a fun, lively guy.  I know he will bless many people’s lives.

I love the Chilean Children!!

3. Things I Learned from Zone Conference

We had the best zone conference ever. I want to share with you some things I learned. One of the things I learned today that I have never thought of before is that a way we can learn more about who God is and what his character is like is by learning more about his law.  If we learn about the 10 commandments we learn that God does not lie, He does not commit adultery etc. I also learned that when we keep the covenants we make in the temple and then respect those covenants we show God how much we love Him.

This is part of my District.

4. If you have ever seen the Movie “She’s the Man” you will appreciate this

The other day I was at Ruben’s house. After a lesson we always have a snack like its where you eat bread and cheese and jam and herbal tea and yes I had a conversation solely about cheese and the conversation started with gouda cheese. I was dying!  It took all I had not to burst out laughing hahah bahahahha I love that movie! hehe

Well there it is - Chile is so great and I love being a missionary. Go out there and make a difference in the lives of others. It doesn’t have to be a huge act just smile, send a text or go visit someone who needs ya. We are the Saviors hands on the earth.  Represent him well.

 Love ya’ll so much

Hermana Jennings

Check out the guy waving in the background!