I'm 21!!!!

April 28, 2014

So Tuesday was my birthday and it was great! The best part was that Andres and Paola are going to get married June 2! Yay! I am so happy! Andres has changed so much. It is was so neat to hear him say he wants to continue to change and that he just wants to do what is right. We have seen miracles with this family. Also during the day Hermana Leishman, Hermana Diaz, Hermana Torres, Hermana Porras, Maria Alicia, and Jorge called me to wish me happy birthday. Maria Alicia is from El Golf, she is like family can’t wait for ya’ll to meet her but it just made my day to talk to all these people that are such dear friends. Oh and Hermana Barrales brought me a cake too it was so great cause I didn’t have one but she brought it by at night and I wanted to cry was so happy. Tender mercy of the Lord. All and all it was a great birthday. WHoo hoo this girl is 21. Where does the time go haha

OH and we also came home to all of our trash spread out all over the front yard of our little house… some mischievous tiny dog slipped through the fence and went to town on our trash…. Yep brought back bad memories of when we lived on Angela Drive and that black dog always knocked over our trashcans and we had to clean up the trash….dad you remember that_ but ya life is good and Christ is our Savior!

So this week we have really been working with the youth in our ward. We went out with Cata Wednesday and it was a miracle because she comes to church sometimes but everyone is like she is pesada and we were like no she is great and she loved it and shared her testimony and helped us teach and Friday we worked all day with Ephraim and it was so great because he is working on his mission papers and it was good for him to come out with us. We are trying to save a youth as elder Evans said. We are here to build the kingdom where we are that means do all we can help with service save youth, baptize, and love those that need it. I love the mission but I also what to continue to do all I can and do my part to build the kingdom were I am.

So Sunday was my comps birthday! We ate so much cake this week! But it was great  I have a ton of photos to send yall and in church on Sunday Pres Molina announced our birthdays over the pulpit it was cute hahah but ya

This Saturday we had a family home evening with the branch it was so fun we had a lesson then we played who wants to be a millionaire and it was so fun and we laughed so hard and then there was karaoke it was neat to see lots of people from the branch united we are becoming more united little by little and these FHEs (family home evenings) are going to help so much! It was funny because during the lesson part my comp and I were sitting on the ground and little by little all the little children that we there were surrounding us it was so cute. Dad you are right kids just like me hahah and I like them. We should be more like children, love everyone and find joy out of the little things. It was so cute there is an investigator and he brought his 6 year old son and during the FHE he was my little buddy and on Sunday his mom wouldn’t let him go to church with his dad and he told his dad I have to go because if I don’t they will miss me. Awww right. He is so cute and we did miss him Sunday.

 

So since I’m getting so old, 21 years!, I have started exercising again…. Yep I’ve been bad at that but my comp and I are going a 20 day workout challenge and I like it!

I really love the new sister Hermana Chavez we all get along great.

Well this week was so great. Learning a lot and loving it here in Pirque like this Sunday I got to lead in sacrament and I was looking at all the people in the audience and I was just like I love all of these people they really are like my family and I feel at home here it’s going to be hard to leave. This is so great.

Hermana Jennings

No Power

April 14, 2014

So this week was great! I learned that sometimes you have to push through to the end to receive the blessings. We started off the week visiting Maria and Sergio and they gave us the news that Maria has cancer. We walked into their home and right as I walked I could feel something was not right. My comp started the lesson and then i asked if everything was alright in their family. Maria started to cry and told us the news. We then shared with them the hope we can find through Christ and we ended with a hymn, Quedate conmigo Senor, it was a neat moment. She felt the peace that comes from the spirit and we are going to continue to work with them and pray for her. (Elath – not sure what this means).

So another neat story we went to at lunch at a members house and their grandmother came over for lunch and I got to share a scripture with them and I read Helaman 5:12 and she was like that is exactly what we believe.  She is of another faith.  It was neat because I listened to her testimony for a good while.  I was then able to give her a Book of Mormon because I asked her if she enjoyed the scripture and she said yes and I was like, “Would you like a copy of the Book of Mormon?” and she said yes.  Then later we were doing service with this same family and she was sitting on the couch reading the Book of Mormon! So awesome!

We are also teaching this 16 year old girl named Carla her family are members but she isn’t but her family is less active and we have started teaching her. She is (demasiado?) shy.  This week after like 4 visits she is really opening up to us and  it was so neat because she told us,  “I just feel good inside”  and I was like,  “That is the spirit testifying of the truth of these things.”  It was so neat. She has had a rough go of life so far and she is starting to realize the joy that one can find in the gospel.

 So this week I have been working on being more bold  - you know like sin is sin and we are here to call others to repent. We have been telling people to get married – when they are living together, forgive others and come back to church, etc. And you know what it went well and they agreed. I was shocked really but you know it’s important to be bold, but you must do it with love because without love it really has the opposite effect.  We told these people to repent because we loved them dearly and we wanted them to have these blessings and we must help them realize their sins so that they can change and come unto Christ. I  just love the people here and i feel some neat things are coming real soon!

 Did I mention we were without power for 4 days! haha It was quite an adventure. I felt like we were camping as we came home at night and used candles to read and plan and were cut off from music, blow dryers, heaters, washing machines, dryers, microwaves etc. I already sleep in a sleeping bag anyways - it was a lot like camping hahha Once we got the problem solved we got lights back Saturday night.   I am just thankful we had gas and hot showers and our stove is gas powered so we could heat up food. Got to love the adventures of the mission!

Paula and Andres brought home baby Jaime from the NICU and now they just have to get married so they can get baptized. It’s been a week of miracles because we are now teaching the parents of Andres.  His dad was so not receptive before but now he is and yes they need to get married too!  So we are working on that and teaching them the gospel. I sure love this family and ya’ll are going to meet them when you come to pick me up! The sad thing is their other son has has some struggles.  Can I just say to whoever is reading this not to do drugs they aren’t cool. They ruin familias. But other than him we have seen the gospel unite the other members of their family so step by step they are progressing.

Well all in all we are doing good working hard going through good and bad days just like you guys. Well love you all so much! 

Hermana Jennings

 Please watch this - it is wonderful!

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

Ever Learning

April 7, 2014

So this week we had zone class and I thought I would share with yall what I learned.

1) There are many spiritual gifts. One that would help you develop all the rest is the gift "To forget oneself." Christ is the perfect example of this gift put into action

2) The atonement did not begin in Gethsemane. It began when Christ was selected or volunteered to be our Savior. It is not one event. He has been carrying our sins since the time of Adam until now and he will continue to carry them till all sin has been resolved.

3) ‘So this thought came to me during zone class ¨Sure what you did or have done on your mission was great, you changed for the better and you helped others to do the same, come unto Christ. But all of this is in vain if you stop progressing after the mission."  If you can continue to progress and grow after your mission then your mission was the sturdy foundation for the rest of your life -  if not go do something to change that TODAY.

‘Just go read Isaiah 53 and think about what Christ did for you.

4) ‘Where are you going spiritually?- Read Moses 4:15: "and the Lord called unto (Lauren)and said unto (her) where goest thou?. This was so neat because God knew where Adam was going but it was a question to help Adam to evaluate his life just like we can if we place our name in the place of Adams name like I did.  We can answer that question and we can also ask ourselves, What is holding me back?

5) ‘Farmers have to get up at 3:30 am to feed the animals. This hour is crucial, if they don’t get up and feed the animals then the animals will not have the strength to work the rest of the day. They may not love getting up at 3:30 am to go outside and feed a bunch of smelly animals but they know what their sacrifice will bring and what blessings they will receive from their sacrifice. We can apply this to our lives. We also have 3:30 am moments, they are trying but they make all the difference and what we do in those times determines our later down the road results. What are your 3:30 am moments? What are you doing during this time? work now. The work you don’t do now when you should, will be paid for in the future in regret.

So this week was Conference! Yay! It was so great! My favorite talks were Robert D Hales, Russell M Nelson, Uchtdorfs, Bednars, Thomas S. Monson, and Michel John U Ten.

Some notes of mine:I loved how the speaker that was talking about Jose Smith and said in his haste to know he was not hasty. That got me thinking about something I learned earlier on the mission how Christ was not running around all day as fast as he could checking things off of his check list. His work was urgent but he took time for the one and he love all that crossed his path. We too must be in haste or attend the things that are urgent but we must not be hasty because hasty makes me think of sloppy work and we didn’t come here to this earth to have a sloppy mortal existence.

I also loved the Family Ordinance chart Idea. Im thinking FHE idea and some sweet Sunday activities would be working on Family history work.

I loved the quote from ( don’t know who said it) that said People can do amazing things when they feel trusted. And Are you tied back to God? I love a good question that can help us evaluate our lives and improve.

I also loved the sister that talked about how daily scripture study and prayer were more important than anything else. I am thankful for your effort to do this every day mom and dad I know we kids didn’t make it easy but I knew just how important the gospel was and is to you two. I now look back and am thankful for the times we would head out somewhere in the car and yall would share your testimonies with us in the car, cause we couldn’t go anywhere, and all the times we listened to the scriptures during breakfast, family time, and more. Thanks for every effort because it has helped me become who I am today and I sure think yall are great love you mom and dad!

Well this week was great. Well for some country happenings down here in pirque. This morning I found half of a chicken breast that had been left out on the counter so I was like guess ill go lay it out in front of our gate because all sorts of stray hungry dogs are out there but ya wasn’t expecting what happened next. Our neighbors chickens sneaked in our front yard again, still cracks me up, and after I put the chicken breast on the ground… yes the chickens were going at it… ew right they were eating like their aunt= or something… not right.. but ya #onlyinpirque

I did get to hold a duck this week that was a first I'll be sending pictures of that.

EARTHQUAKE yes so we had an earthquake nothing crazy but the house was moving it was the weirdest thing it was a small one but super awesome but ya nothing like the one that happened up North those poor people pray for them. But ya sweet experience.

love ya'll!

Hermana Jennings