Cool Tower in a Vineyard

February 25, 2014

 So finally I got my package!!!! I was done with district class which was really great and the other Hermanas that live with me were like,  “Your package is here”  yay! and so I was around everyone to open it.    So  . . . I did and of course there were all the Elders sitting close by, just my luck,  and I open my package and lo and behold all you can see is a ton of tampons!  My comp and I were laughing so hard and they were like,  
“What is in it?”….yep by now I am used to embarrassing moments so they saw…. So funny,  but they enjoyed the beef jerky - thanks mom - and so did my comp.   I love this little typi machine thing its great (Lauren’s Aunt Alicyn sent her an old time keyboard that she can type on during the week then upload to a computer on P-days)

I guess I’ll explain some typical Pirque stuff. So let’s see - today we ventured into a part of our sector we have never been to and had some neat experiences.  Keep in mind the size of our sector is like almost 1/3 of our mission so its ginormous!

Pirque is in dark blue and he rest of the mission is to the North.
The Green is another mission

First we went to lunch at the family Cabezas house and they have a dog named Niña and she followed us all day today.  It was so funny cause all the people that we talked to where like is that your dog…um nope…awkward. 

Some funny things that happened today and then I’ll share the miracles. But ya so let’s see we are just walking and here come like 12 cows and they are being herded by a car (a step up from the bike herding the cows that we saw last time), we definitely almost got eaten by like 3 dogs… yep don’t worry my comp is a softball player and she has pretty good aim and there are a ton of rocks so the scary ones get scared off. Today I found out that there is a volcano in our sector yep with our luck down here in Pirque its going to blow but hey that would be  a neat experience if he survived haha….right?.. So the whole day as we are exploring a new part of our sector we kept getting closer and closer to this volcano.

We also saw miracles it was so neat we finally met a menos (less) active member and she was so neat.  It was a miracle because we were lost and she lived way far away from the main road and somehow we wandered into a small business and we knew her dad and we went next door and he was there and she happened to be visiting also.   Ya it was crazy awesome and we talked to her and she was really open and even told us she would come to church.  It was awesome and you know that I really believe she will come.  It was neat because I felt prompted to tell her that we needed her in the branch we need more people like her who want to serve others. She has a desire to serve others and it was a really great lesson. We also got to talk to another menos active and one sister is going through some really hard times and we ran into her out of the blue.

She was like,  “I have been looking for you guys, I couldn’t call you because I don’t have money to buy minutes and I didn’t have another way to find you.” and it was neat. She told us she felt that God had abandoned her and that she was passing through too much and we talked about how she wasn’t going to church and not reading her scriptures etc. I was like,  “You need blessings right now huh?” and she said,  “Yes more than ever” and I was like,  “Obedience is the key to get blessings  and said if we don’t keep the commandments we lose those blessings and that God is always there He knows us and he gives us commandments because they protect us and keep us safe; they bring blessings and true happiness.”    He will never force us to do anything even if it is a good thing and I told her you need blessings right now and you need to be obedient to the commandments of God which include going to church reading scriptures etc and she was like,  “You are right”   It was a neat thing because sometimes I am scared to say stuff like that but as missionaries we are here to help the people progress and come unto Christ and become like him. We do that through repentance through change and that is what I invite people and myself to do each day. I know that this is Christ’s gospel and that He loves us dearly and has given us a way to truly be happy

Thursday: This morning I decided to make some boiled peanuts haha I have been looking for where I could buy peanuts in the shell and Hermana Molina found some at a store and bought some for me. She is the best example of someone that really thinks of others and just a good woman.  but anywhoo I have been cooking-boiling the boiled peanuts all morning and they still aren’t ready - sure miss my crockpot… we will see how they turn out. Mom miss your boiled peanuts #southerngirl #noplacelikehome (those hashtags were for you autumn)  but ya well we are heading out the door but love you guys.  It’s fun to write to ya’ll everyday now you get more detailed stuff hahah  The boiled peanuts where a hit in the office haha the office Elders told me that Hermana wright told them guess who eats boiled peanuts?… hermana Jennings yep and proud of it!

Friday: Today was a very different day than yesterday since we have been exploring new parts of our sector we are meeting new people. Today we went to a place called los silos and we went tracking there but no one wanted to listen. That’s ok - we knocked doors and enjoyed having fun together like always.  We live in the middle of nowhere and we are usually walking down dirt roads in the middle of vineyards with the mountain backdrop.  It’s beautiful, but today we found the coolest thing we ran into this vineyard and it had a tower in the middle and this scene  - I am sending pictures -

  took me to Jacob 5 but then as I was looking in my scriptures and found a parable from Matthew 21:33-40 and it actually says a tower in the middle of the vineyard. This parable really hit me especially verse 38 which is referencing to Christ.  He really did come to this world to save us from our fallen state and his own people crucified him but they did not win. In verse 41 the Lord makes a promise that the wicked will not win in the end and that those that are steadfast will live with him again in a state of never ending happiness.

Back to our day of tracking - yesterday we had an interesting tactic to find new investigators because we would always come to a fork in the road and we would each pick a direction and then we would do a sweet game of rock paper scissors and who ever won we went that way.  Yesterday that was a good idea and we found so many new people to teach, but today we just tracked a lot and not a ton of people wanted to listen to us.  During all of this tracking we got a reference from the assistants and they were like - ya we met this guy that met 2 sisters in Pirque  and he described them like this “There was one who was really white and very nice and the other one was darker and had glasses” so they knew to call us bhaha jk!  It was a funny description but ya we had met him before and now we are going back but today. We had a neat experience with an investigator that we contacted a few weeks ago her name in Stephanie she is way great but she doesn’t live in our sector but we had an amazing lesson and we did a church tour and she wants to learn more. The thing that was neat to me was that we had a lesson with a member and he really knew a ton more than I did and was pulling scriptures to answer her questions like a pro but the times that I felt the spirit the most was when my comp and I and the member testified. When we bare our testimonies that is when the Spirit can testify of what we say and that is more powerful than trying to convince people, because we really aren’t here to do that we are here to teach testify and invite them to act and pray about what we have taught them. We felt the spirit a lot and it was a great day.

So this week we had interviews with President Wright. He is a good guy.  He talked to all of us about obedience and how our mission will be more blessed if we are obedient. I was thinking about that and why are we obedient what does that show?  It shows that we love God. And if we all love God more and obey his commandments because we love him then we want to do what he asks of us.  Then we will see a huge change in our mission.   A mission that is full of the love of God is bound to see progress and blessings.

I got some sweet  new music on my iPod after the same music for 1 year straight I erased it all and swapped it for what the secretaries had on the office computers and I love it. My new favorite song is Savior Redeemer of my Soul from 17 miracles.

Saturday: So today we visited a lot of people that are really great but have lots of struggles and that was really just making me sad. I wish I could do more you know and just help them see that how they are doing life really doesn’t bring happiness. We find happiness when we do things God’s way and not in any other way.

But ya this week was great as always just working hard loving it here and loving the person I am becoming and the hope I have to continue to progress - sure do love you guys so much!

Hermana Jennings

Obedience is Key

February 10, 2014

So this week was a good one! 

We started off the week with zone class!!! whoohoo and here is the stuff that I learned. When we feel down we need to invite the spirit to remind us of the times we have had a change of heart and sung the song of redeeming love (alma 5:26) I thought this was neat because we have the gift of the Holy Ghost and we have the right to ask for help because we are Gods children and He wants to help us sometimes we just forget to ask.

  Don’t worry fam I was singing the Hill Cumorah pageant song in my head - wishing i was at pageant hahahahah that was so fun. The other thing I learned was this one sister talked about how Laman and Nephi had the same experiences, they had to leave everything in Jerusalem, they almost got killed by Laban, had to journey in the desert for a while, build a boat, and lots more stuff but the difference was that they choose to react differently. Nephi chose to be happy not complain and follow and trust in the Lord and Laman chose to be a whiny butt and missed out on some pretty neat blessings. So the question is for all of us: Who will we choose to be -  Lamon or Nephi? Also they made the announcement that we cannot use backpacks anymore....ya at first I was ticked!  Going to be straight up honest cause let’s just say I be living in the middle of nowhere walking 10 miles every day in the hot sun and bye bye camel pack!!! I was like what!   Then I realized that the whole week before I had been praying to be more obedient like exactly obedient and lo and behold the Lord sent me something so I could practice being obedient.  So I am now sporting the owl purse aunt Betsy sent me for Christmas

(you were inspired aunt Betsy and I love it and I get compliments on it everyday thanks so much - love you) So I now get to be obedient. It’s so true that if we want to be better and we pray for an attribute of Christ, the Lord will just send us a test so that we can apply the attribute we are trying to develop.  To end with zone class we got to do a skit.... my comp and I and I have to say it was quite funny but it was a good experience.

Tuesday I got to go on divisions with Hermana Paddock and she is so great I learned so much from her and we learned together. We had this really neat lesson with a lady named Carmen and it was crazy cause thoughts just popped into my head and as I shared them we were able to help Carmen in her needs it was a neat experience. I guess it was just one of those experiences where you had to be there to know but we did see a guy with dreads down to his calves....say what????

We finally might have a ward mission plan! whoohoo We went over one this Sunday and I hope that this time it goes over smoother with the leaders because now the ward mission leader is on board.   This week I want to share a neat experience my comp and I had. This week we had a FHE at a house of a family in our branch.

We did this neat FHE where we shared a message focusing on missionary work and in D&C 4:3 it talks about if you have a desire to serve you are called to the work.  We then talked about the importance of missionary work as members and then we whipped out 2 Books of Mormon and we asked them to mark their favorite scriptures and we did the same and then we went out on splits half the family with Hermana Huber and the other half with me. We went out and contacted their neighbors and gave them the Book of Mormon. It was a neat experience because; 1) -  it got the members involved and 2) we got some sweet references and it was a testimony strengthener for this family. We are going to be doing this more in the future because it really helps the members and us.

So guess who sang in church again... this girl with her comp and Hermana Lopez yep dad your dream is coming true - Autumn playing her viola & me and my singing bahahah It’s so funny because I now have sang at a baptism and in church but I so don’t sing.  I just happen to be comps with a comp that sings like an angel so with her voice and mine it sounds good haha I guess.  Ya it’s fun.  I think this will be the ONLY time someone will ask me to participate in a musical number in church hahahha. 

Something I learned this week too about repentance just a short phrase:   “The true test of your repentance comes when the temptation of the same sin returns”  so true so true.

All and all we are doing good.  Hermana Huber got her stitches out today and I got my scripture covers finally.  So life is good. 

Hermana Jennings

Trauma with Hermana Huber

February 3, 2014

So this week was CRAZY!   Like crazy OK so here is what went down.

Monday- we are still in a trio because Hermana Sommerfeld got sent home because she was so sick and we are just loving life nothing too crazy happens.

Tuesday- we wake up start with the daily morning line up... ring ring.... President... Hermana Portillo answers the phone... no more trio for us... we take off on the hour and a half trip to the offices (used to live like 15 minutes away) and go pick up Hermana Portillo’s new comp that she will be training. (poor thing found out the day of because Hermana Zamora is waiting for her  visa to go to Columbia)   Ya it’s always fun taking a trip up to the office cause we get to see the Fishers haha Elder Fisher let us go shopping in the storage rooms under the church! Score! My comp found a nice winter coat and I found a new Joseph Smith restoration movie (badly needed) and a new box of Kleenexes haha  We got to get our mail earlier! Autumn I got your Tangled book por fin!!!!   I love it so much. Don’t worry everyone in the office got to read it and they all loved it!  It makes me smile shoot you are a pretty sweet book maker.  It was a lovely addition to my collection, Nemo and tangled! BEST DAY EVER!!! (Autumn made a Disney Tangled book – mission style for Lauren for Christmas) Ya after we rounded up our things we headed back with 4 instead of three.

Wednesday- we get a new District! yay! Ours is awesome and guess who is in my district yes Elder Huber haha small world mom huh (Elder Huber’s sister served in Fayetteville) and so we are now the Huber family cause my comp is Hermana Huber.   It’s funny but ya we had a great class and we are all praying for each other’s investigators which is neat cause I have some great news....

VICTOR CAME TO CHURCH. Victor has been investigating the church for 20 years and recently he just got married and we have a baptismal date and he is working towards it. He is such a humble reserved shy man who has such a desire to do what is right. Something that has been holding him back is that he is really timid or shy or nervous to come to church. We have been working with him for a while and this Sunday as I was playing the opening hymn (ya I’ll explain why I was playing the piano....)  I looked up and he was there sitting next to my comp! I almost stopped playing I was so happy and shocked.

So before I  go on I have to tell the story of what went down Saturday.... I swear this place has like a weird curse or something but sure do love it here.

Saturday:  We are walking to Daniella’s house to finish the paint job - right and then this dog starts chasing us and Hermana Huber has this great idea to climb a fence which would have been a good idea.  She almost made it over and her hand got caught and it got ripped open! Like the length of my pinky ripped open!  She hates blood and so here we are freaking out - the dog left....  she climbed the fence for nothing!   I am on one side and she is on the other bleeding  and screaming, “ I’m going into shock” So not a good idea right?  So I go nurse mode (or at least my voice changes cause as i was like ok dear just calm down I’m coming... she is screaming,  “I hate your nurse voice”... so funny) but ya I found a break in the fence and went in and got her (I didn’t think jumping the fence was such a good idea haha) So since we live in the middle of nowhere we were out in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere!  I am like ok what now and how in the heck are we going to get to the clinic?  Yep luckily this nice old man drove up in his car and we flagged him down and asked if he could take us to the clinic.  Luckily he was nice and had a roll of toilet paper in the car and we wrapped up Hermana Huber’s hand and jumped in.  So meanwhile I am talking to Hermana Huber trying to calm her down, I was asking her about her sister megumi and stuff.  She is freaking out and then I’m like ok let’s sing (she loves singing it helps her).  So I was like I’ll sing and then she yells - You can’t sing  ... so funny cause its true but ya we I managed to calm her down and we made it to the country clinic emergency room thing.  They started stitching her up and I just happened to have my iPod on me cause I was bringing it to go paint and so we put on some EFY music.  I am holding her down so they can stitch her up and she is belting some sweet EFY tunes.... it was quite a sight. 

So they are stitching her up right and they get 4 in and want to call it quits and I was like to the doctor, “ um there is a gaping hole there so she throws another one in.... and when she leaves I asked the nurse to clean it up better and found another gaping hole.  So I asked again can you put a stitch there too so she did. (I’m thinking where’s my mom when you need her hahha ) but ya  6 stitches later she is all wrapped up and we walk out of the clinic.  The cool thing was it was all free,  still not sure why but we were pretty pumped about that.  So we go home for the rest of the day and it’s like 9 and we are watching a church movie right eating watermelon like happy campers (well Hermana Huber was in a ton of pain) and she cracked a joke and I started laughing but then I started throwing up like on my sleeping bag and our front rug and  the bathroom.... it was a rough day for the huber-jennings companionship.  The irony of it all was so funny so we just laughed and laughed about how crazy our day had been and went to sleep.  Sunday morning was crazy because Hermana Huber is a gimp.  I washed her hair, did her makeup and lots of other stuff cause she only has one hand and so we are running into church late and I am like dang it I have to play the piano cause my comp (a super musical person) has 1 hand.  So I run up without practice struggle through some verses till I get warmed up and then I see Victor came to church and almost stopped playing. I was so shocked but kept on playing along and made it through sacrament meeting.  It was quite an adventure.  Y

es that is what went down this week - never a dull week in Pirque that’s for sure.  Love ya’ll so much! Know that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that through Him all things are possible and that we must trust in Him and do Gods will. 

Love ya’ll

Hermana Jennings

Painting and a New Fridge

January 27, 2014

Painting Daniella's house for service

So last Saturday we got the opportunity to paint Daniellas house thanks to grandpa and grandmas Christmas present.  She really loves it!  We still have to finish but she is way happy. It was fun to do service for someone else instead of buying random stuff I’ll probably never use, but ya she is so great.

Giving Guido a fridge cause he didn’t have one.

So we live in this neighborhood thing and the missionaries moved from one house to the house next door before I came.  For a while we had like 2 houses and in one. In one of the houses there was a fridge that no one was using.  The other sisters had an investigator that is our neighbor who would keep his water in our fridge because he didn’t have a fridge at his house.  I called Elder Fisher and asked him if he had an extra fridge and he said yes!   So he came and dropped it off (what a good guy -  the Fishers are my favorites ever!)  We got to take it over to him.  It was so touching to see how thankful he was. He almost started crying. It was one of those times that you just feel real warm and fuzzy inside and helps you remember where we find joy and that is in serving others.  When we are serving others we are in the service of our God. So here’s a challenge:  Go out and serve someone this week because it will make you happier!

I was sick with some stomach virus - not fun - and then all my comps got it L

Hermana Jennings