All in the Lord's Time

October 28, 2013

A neat thing that I learned this week was that the Lords timing is perfect timing. We had gotten a reference from the other Hermanas in our area and it was a great one.   We kept trying to go by and visit them and 2 months passed by without being able to reach them.  Then one day we were in the area and we were like lets go see if Soledad is home. Gratefully they were home and they let us come up - for only 5 minutes, but we stayed for 45 minutes - best ever. We were able to meet her other daughter that has had some hard times and is just really lost.  She just moved back home this week and we showed up just 2 days afterwards.  We talked with her and then we went back the next day and she also came to church!  It was so neat.  She is ready for the gospel.    I do believe she needs time to process it and find answers, but I know that the gospel is what she needs to find light in her life. It was neat cause all the other times they didn’t let us in was for a reason cause we needed to meet Fransisca. We needed to wait so we could talk to her.

This week we got to do a service project yay! There is a mansion - literally it’s amazing, on a street that is close to our house were some of the missionaries in the MTC live.  They aren’t able to  house all of them in the MTC anymore so they use this mansion for spare rooms.   We went over there to help clean after some of the missionaries left we got the privilege of cleaning the Elders bathroom.  I got to clean the shower -  can I say, I swear no one had washed that ever!  I was scrubbing and scrubbing and I was just thinking “How could they live like this?” those poor things.  Let’s just say my future family will live in a clean environment if it’s the last thing I do!  haha 

This Sunday we got to go to the baptism of Elvira.  It was so sweet, but let’s just say it had a bumpy start. So first off the first speaker didn’t show  - our old mission leader... ya we were so disappointed in him, but then Hermana Diaz got up and gave a talk on the spot that was really great.  It was going better after that and then they went to get up to go to the font and it’s like taking forever and we were like, “What is going on?”  So I got up and started playing the piano, yes all 4 hymns I know haha, but it was better than the awkward silence.  They come back and they were like the water is too hot we can’t get in it so then the brethren  went outside and got the hose and put it through the window and started filling the font up with cold water. haha so funny!  After like 2 more times of getting up and coming back the water finally was ready and she got baptized.  It was an adventure, but you know it was perfect cause she got baptized and that is the important part. It was so sweet to see her hug her son who baptized her at the end. I know that baptism is essential.

This week I had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was amazing and very peaceful. I know that the temple really is the house of God cause you can feel the spirit there. I am sad I won’t get to go back until next year, but it was a great experience especially cause I got to go with Hermana Rivera and Hermana Talbot - I love those girls so much!

So random fact everyone here thinks my name is Jennie yep I am la Jennie to everyone.  It’s so funny or Hermana Jennie haha but I love it!  haha

This week was a great week - thanks for the letters love ya’ll so very much!

Hermana Jennings

9 Month Mark

October 21, 2013

So this week was a great one. Monday we had a miracle happen.  So we were walking to a less actives house and we passed this woman and her dog,  I then got the strongest impression to stop and talk to her.  Which was the spirit cause when I did I realized she was someone we had contacted like 2 and half months ago and had given her a Book of Mormon.  She was like thank you so much for that book. I love it,  it just brings such peace into my life and I read it all the time. We were like trying to hold in our excitement as we asked her if she had more time for us to talk more about this book. We went in and had the neatest lesson and she has totally been prepared. I love when you meet people like that and they are feeling the spirit but they don’t know what it is and it’s our job to help them recognize this, learn and come unto Christ. It was a tender mercy from the Lord to bring Carolina into our lives. We are going to teach her again today so we are excited.

This week yes I hit the 9 month mark.... sad huh?  We do this weird thing here as sister missionaries on the mission when we hit 9 months.  We stuff our shirts so we are pregnant bahah get it like 9 months? A real baby 9 months of a mission! Just a bunch of crazy sisters with fake pregnant bellies! haha It was lots of fun and kind of weird, but then we had cake and it was so good.  So it was a fun little party after a hard day’s work. I sure do love the Sisters that I live with they are like really sisters. It’s so crazy how fast the time flies so just enjoy every day cause that’s all we can do.  We can work on being a better version of the person we were yesterday. I am a little sad cause the time went by so fast and I’ll be home before I know it which is a bummer cause I really love the mission. Going back will be hard - like huge culture shock too, but ya’ll just have to come visit Chile it’s the best.

This week was so hot yep we are sweating buckets here in October, weird huh? I am proud to say I have a watch tan!! I’m using my Chilean version of a camel pack and it’s like the best invention ever - I love it.

This week we got to take some members to the temple tour where we start in the chapel next to the temple and have a tour and talk about the restoration Christ and his baptism and the prophet and then we go inside the front part of the temple, it’s just the entry way and its very small, but you can tell the difference from the outside.  We only get to go to the temple once a year so going in a little part was amazing and the spirit was so amazing.  On the bright side I get to go to the temple tomorrow I am so excited.  Something that  I learned was when we stopped in front of the first vision photo of joseph Smith, God and Jesus and we talked about the Book of Mormon  and I got to explain what the Book of Mormon is to me and to me.  That book is where I can go to feel God’s love for me. I feel a peace and a belonging like no other when I read this book and I want all of you to go read 2 Nephi 4 http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/4?lang=eng.  It is so great, it’s one of those things that makes me feel like I have so much to change to become who God wants me to b, but it gives me hope at the same time. I love the Book of Mormon as it was written for us in our day. If you haven’t had the chance to read it go read it cause it will change your life cause it continues to change mine and brings peace and love into my life.

Today we had a fun P-day experience we went out to eat sushi  which was so good?!  The restaurant we went too we got to see a Chilean celebrity... i didn’t know who he was but that kind of stuff so doesn’t happen in Fayetteville! haha   It was fun and the sushi was so good haha and it was so great to go out with my Chilean family and i sure am going to miss them if I get transferred.

Well I love ya’ll so very much thanks so much for the support and the love that you send and I am praying for ya’ll always

Love

Hermana Jennings

Learn more about the Book of Mormon :)

http://mormon.org/discover/002/07-book-of-mormon.html?gclid=CJ-QqouOqboCFSNp7AodvxkAoQ&CID=99110386&ef_id=E0hOHIOJl3wAAMB6:20131021234535:s

Hiking in the Andes

October 14, 2013

Dear Family

So this week was a good learning week. We had some lows and some highs and lots of appointments fall through which was hard. We did lots of door to door knocking which was pretty much not productive at all, but I did get some great flower pictures.  We also got some pretty funny excuses why people didn’t have time for us:

·

                           Like -  I’m in the shower (what.... ya we so don’t want to see you if you are in the shower....)
·         I’m English and I’ll be having my dinner now ( like I am not kidding exact words English accent and all!  haha we laughed so hard)
·         Me and my dog and cat are going somewhere (hey we can come too?...haha jk) 

AND MORE.   It was funny to hear the randomest things!

To say the least -  so members if you want your missionaries to be using their time better give us your references cause we can find people by ourselves but it’s not how this work is supposed to work.  We are a team and if we don’t work together we can’t be as successful! 

This week I wanted to share a scriptures with ya’ll that I found and it is in Jacob

Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things. Jacob 4:7

I love this scriptures so much and it’s so true.  I have seen it in real life action in my life this past week. I have flaws and I have weaknesses - some bigger than others but by being able to see them in myself I realize that I can’t do this alone, not at all.  I have had to turn to the Lord and feel His grace to help me have the power to do the things he asks of me. I love this work and I love being here in Chile. I know that this is where I belong right now. I am learning and growing in ways that I couldn’t do at home. I love just talking about the gospel with all people because it is the thing that shapes us into the beings that God wants us to be. We have a purpose in this life and we can become all that we were sent here to become only in and through our Savior Jesus Christ.  He has unlocked the gate we must enter in and then through trials and obedience we will be shaped into so much more than what we could have done by ourselves. 

So today we went on a fun excursion. We went hiking in the Andes mountains haha It was amazing and we had so much fun. I LOVED  being out in nature just soaking it all in, all that God has created for us. It’s amazing and it was a great time to think and ponder about life and what direction I want my life to go. So challenge for this week -  go outside, find the beauty that is around you and remember our Father in Heaven and how much He loves you and has given us this beautiful earth to life on and enjoy. 

Well love you all so much and know that I am doing great and working hard and learning a lot too!!!

Hermana Jennings

General Conference

October 7, 2013

This week we had the opportunity to listen to conference. It was the best ever! I watched the Relief Society broadcast in Spanish and that was an experience.  I like it more when I can hear the actual people speaking, but it’s neat cause sometimes the people that are translating get touched and start to cry as they translate. This is kind of neat cause it just shows that it is so powerful.  The words that we hear they do come from prophets of God and they are what we need to hear today and in our time. I can’t wait till they are out in print so I can read them!

All of you reading this I challenge you to go watch the conference http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2013/10?cid=HPFR100413105&lang=eng because it what God wants his children to know right now and we are all his children and he loves us. Sorry this letter is short I am running low on time. I’ll be sure to write a better letter next week. 

Hermana Jennings

Favorite Quotes

September 30, 2013

This week was great. We got to talk to a lot of amazing people and found some new people to teach. It was an adjustment living with 2 more sisters in the apartment but they are great. Their names are Hermana Runnells and she is from Orem, Utah and Hermana Diaz who is from Argentina. They are great and they both bring something new to our little family.  We have got a lot going on here. We have a good time and I swear there is never a quiet moment. This week some stomach flu has hit the apartment so far 3 are down and I haven’t gotten it yet so I pray I don’t, but other than that we are doing great. 

I wanted to share with ya’ll some quotes I found this week:

The Holy Ghost “satisfies and fills up every longing of the human heart, and fills up every vacuum. When I am filled with that Spirit,” she continued, “my soul is satisfied, and I can say in good earnest, that the trifling things of the day do not seem to stand in my way at all. But just let me lose my hold of that spirit and power of the Gospel, and partake of the spirit of the world, in the slightest degree, and trouble comes; there is something wrong. I am tried, and what will comfort me? You cannot impart comfort to me that will satisfy the immortal mind, but that which comes from the Fountain above. And is it not our privilege to so live that we can have this constantly flowing into our souls?”  - Eliza R.Snow

I love this one cause it tells us the key to happiness when we live so the Spirit can be with us. That is how we will reach happiness even in dire situations.

“Search the scriptures—search the revelations … and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation.”   - Joseph Smith

I love this cause I am not here asking people to believe me cause I am nothing, but I am asking them to ask God, the one person who knows all.  How can we know God;  through his work, the scriptures, and prayer. If anyone out there doesn’t know for themselves I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible and ask God if they are true and you will get an answer - if you ask with real intent. I know that He lives and  will answer our prayers but we must always walk by faith. 

This week was sad because we talked to Ruben and he told us that Amada doesn’t want to get married so we are literally stuck and we aren’t sure what to do but we won’t give up. This week one of the less actives that helped him come back to church gave him a blessing. That was a neat moment. We also got to teach his other daughter cause she hasn’t been to church in years and wants to be more connected to God. It has been such an amazing experience watching people come back to the church and again find joy in the things that truly bring happiness. 

We had transfers this week and I am still here.  I am guessing I will leave my sector the next transfer which makes me sad cause I love the people here so very much. I will always have a little part of my heart here in Chile in El Golf that is for sure. 

If anyone who reads these has a question they want me to answer just ask and i would love to answer.  lauren.jennings@myldsmail.net

Love ya’ll

Hermana Jennings