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