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

Day of Chile

September 23, 2013

So this week was a crazy one full of fighting sisters (scary, lots of tears and no sleep..... just love your comp and respect them) almost dying twice (ok exaggeration lets just say abandoned apartment building trying to find people on the ward list. and homeless man almost chasing after us who only wears like a million trash bags!) so that was exciting, getting new roommates so now there are six of us (party! as if we were crazy enough already hahaha ) lots of parties/lunches for the Day of Chile ( I have never eaten so much meat and empanadas in my life!)

 

 I no longer am eating sweets.  One of our recent converts started smoking again and now we are not eating sweets to help him not smoke.  Every time we want to eat sweets we call him and he calls us every time he wants to smoke.  Like today he called us and said, “I am feeling the spirit in my life again” and i was like aw he is growing up -  best ever.

 This week we had zone conference and a member of the Seventy came. I want to share my favorite part of his message. There are three things that can stop us progressing and they are 1) sin, 2) lack of faith, and 3) not having the desire to serve.  He talked about how all of these come from a lack of love and that really hit me hard.  We need to work on charity and all the rest will follow.  All that God does is done because He loves us and that if we want to become like God  we must learn to do everything out of love. Also in zone conference our mission president talked about how the Children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years and it was only an eleven day trip.  He talked about how sometimes people take 40 year trips for things that only take 11 days and asked us to self-reflect and see if we have any 40 year journeys in our life.  Cause when we think we are doing things the easy way the way, but it is not God’s will it might take us forty years, but when we submit to God’s will and live how we should we get to take the 11 day journey. It was a neat take on the story of the Children of Israel.

So this Sunday I had the neatest experience. I had a question that I really needed answered and I fasted and prayed and it was the neatest thing how everything at church was exactly what I needed to hear.  It was cool cause I was forced to pay attention cause I was translating (that is so hard by-the-way) , but with practice I’ll get better cause there is a couple that is here and they don’t speak Spanish so they stopped coming to church. Now I translate for them so they can get something out of church.  We also started to have a Sunday school class in English too so they can get more out of church.  some things that I learned was that we need to be merciful to others if we want to receive mercy and that forgiving others brings peace into our lives. That my friends is so true - others can hurt you, but you can still love them and remember that they too are children of God and that God wants to forgive them and we should too. Well I love being a missionary so much and it’s one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it is so very fun.  I love being here cause I am growing so much and I have such a long ways to go.  So something fun that I did this week was I took my eternal goals I had written and I found a scripture for each one of them.  It was neat to make sure my eternal goals were aligned with God’s plan for us.  I challenge all of you to do that too.  It’s a neat experience. Well love you so much!

Hermana Jennings

September 11th in Chile

September 16, 2013

Ward Party Barbecue!

So this week was a great one.  Lots of random stuff but lots of great stuff too!

1. September 11 in Chile

In Chile September 11^th  is not a day that brings the country together in remembrance of a terrible thing that happened like in the USA.  Here it’s like crazy riots in the street and people die! So we had to go in at 6pm which was weird, but we had some crazy good companion studies so it was awesome. It was kind of frightening, but we live in such a nice area I think going in at 6pm was just to protect the other missionaries. 

2. Drug Peddlers

This week we got asked if we had drugs by someone who probably was on drugs. Yep that was a first haha he even asked us in English random huh?

3. Learning to Overcome Fears

This week I was playing some prelude music in sacrament meeting and the 1st counselor asked me if I could play the piano for sacrament meeting and asked me which songs I could play. I told him yes, but I was so nervous and my heart was in a knot the whole time!  I made it through the whole meeting alive and checked that one off my bucket list. Let’s just say I did make some errors, but hey I did it and I didn’t quit so maybe next time I wont shake the whole time and woke make errors. haha It was neat and it’s always a great feeling to finish something that was terribly frightening and come out alive.  It just goes to show that’s when we learn and grow, so I love doing things that help me grow 

4. I went on Splits

I  had the weirdest experience this week.  I went on splits to the area of our mission that is like the opposite of where I live and had some tough experiences that broke my heart.  We went to this one house that we did service at for like almost 4 hours cleaning and it didn’t even make a dent.  It was the oddest thing ever, there where holes in the walls and the smell was intense.  There were precious children of God living there and the mom was pregnant and on bed rest.  She just kept yelling the whole time it was awful.  We really are blessed and need to remember our blessings and thank God for what we have. We then went home way early cause the sister I was on splits on was sick.  I just felt so homesick for Hermana Leishman and the rest of my family Hermana Talbot and Hermana Rivera the whole time. I sure do love the Sisters I live with so very much!

P-day at Santa Lucia

5. Challenge from the Mission President.

We had our interviews from the mission president this week and he challenged us to read Mosiah 5:2-5 

2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. 3 And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things.
 4 And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy.
 5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God. 

and find the 10 evidences of conversion. For example when it says in verse 2 they believed all the words that the prophets it’s like how you feel about the words of the prophet. Our mission president said to compare how you feel about the words of the prophets now to 2 years earlier. By this we can measure our conversion and in all these areas we can see where we have grown and how we can improve.  He also compared our growth to that of a tree.  Conversion is something you can really see - like as if you watched a tree grow every day. You can see the evidences of conversion like you can see the evidence of a tree growing green leaves, strong branches etc. It was a neat experiences so I challenge all of ya’ll to do that too!. 

This is the convenience store I was in when it got robbed!

Well love ya’ll so much and I just want to stress to ya’ll it is so important to strengthen your families and that the family is the most important thing.  I have seen so much hurt and just plain train wrecks on my mission cause people try doing the family another way - a way that is not Gods way.  Another thing I learned this week is that we need to judge people by judging their circumstances instead of them because we really don’t know what is all going on and just as we want mercy others want the same too.  We should be willing to show mercy to all. As I say this I am not perfect at that, but I know that we can change and I know that this church is true and that it is where we find joy!

Love yall

Hermana Jennings