Remember the name, my friends (Week 67)

“Random things this week:

-We had zone activity day which consisted of some Japanese games. In one of the games you play rock paper scissors and then the winner gets to hit the loser with a pool noodle. Pretty awesome.

-We also are working with our members on sharing scriptures from the Book of Mormon on social media to allow the Book of Mormon to speak for its self!

-We went and did service for a woman. Her husband is dying of cancer and she's pretty old so she needs help with a lot but it gave us an opportunity to reach out to her and we shared some parts of the Plan of Salvation. I was sitting there sharing while Sister Anderson was watering the plants. It was fun.

-We had a lesson about who God is. We also read 2 Nephi 32. (She pointed out the fact that she was listening to an ABBA song about angels the whole way there on repeat) We discussed how we can receive answers and about what baptism is. It was really great and i know i felt the spirit and i pray that she felt it to. This was the perfect chapter for our investigator. Sister Anderson was so spirit led in choosing that chapter!!!

-We went and helped out at the farmer's market and we helped clean up the market. (we recieved a 20 pound squash, a grocery bag full of grapes, and the most glorious loaf of bread)

-There was one day where we felt like we needed to move going to Russian class from 6 pm to 1 pm for what we thought was just a random reason. (you'll need to know that for later) but our morning consisted of us tearing up our arms and ankles by tearing out hundreds of blackberry bushes. My legs are scratched up like crazy. I didn't wear long pants because I don't think sometimes. I had felt like I needed to wear my Russian tag that day...for no particular reason. Psyche! I met a man from Ukraine at service and we talked for a while and he even asked where our church is. It was awesome But fast forward to that night at 7:30. Sister Anderson had to pee. We decided to stop by a member's house and ask to use their bathroom. We were in our most populated neighborhood of members but we were going through the names of people that lived near by and decided to drive up a neighborhood to a different member. We knocked and the wife was home. She was kind enough to let us use her bathroom. We got into a discussion with her about her hard past. (I'm not going to get into details because the story is not mine to share) Her testimony of the ability of the Atonement to literally change everything bad in our lives into something good is one of the strongest that I have ever heard. As we sat and heard her story and heard her bare witness of the truth of the blessings that God gives us in return I knew that that was exactly where we needed to be. The spirit was so strong and as she finished she stopped and said "Sisters, I just want you to know that 15 minutes before you knocked on my door something horrible from my past popped up and I was all home alone and prayed for God to send me peace." No it was not a new investigator or a baptism. But it was God, our Heavenly Father, reaching out to one of his daughters through us.

- We went to a baptism of a girl in our ward and got to talk with some members and non members there which was nice.


-Our investigator came to a member missionary fireside, and it was awesome!

-We met a man with whom we discussed how the Book of Mormon, and how it brings us closer to Christ. He was pretty argumentative, and I usually will not try to argue too much in those situations. Sometimes, missionaries will just let the person bully and walk away. Which is fine. However, in that moment, I felt a strong prompting to stand up boldly for what I believe. I bore testimony, and the spirit was really strong. He said that he would keep an open mind and took a Book of Mormon. He may decide not to read but we left knowing we left it all on the field. People cannot take away our testimony or deny it. Sister Anderson and I thought that these scriptures from the book of Alma best describe the situation:

3 But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.


18 Now Alma did not grant unto him the office of beinghigh priest over the church, but he retained the office of high priest unto himself; but he delivered the judgment-seat unto Nephihah.

19 And this he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he mightpreach the word of God unto them, to stir them up inremembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them.

Another thing I was thinking about this week.....

10% luck
20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure
15% pain
100% reason to remember the name

In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin tells us: "I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which He shall call you." No matter the different pleasurable or painful or suffocating or illuminating experiences of this life, no matter the percentage of happiness versus the percentage of sorrow, we are always 100% responsible to remember the name of the Lord that will always be written in our hearts. This week I was reminded that baptism is a time when we receive light and make a promise with God. D&C 50:24 says: "That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." One way that we receive light is through receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost at baptism. Receiving more light comes when we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ" [2 Nephi 31:20]. If we consider the course of a day, including all of the ups and downs, different emotions, and choices that are made, it's easy to see that steadfastness in Christ is constantly being threatened by opposing forces. Remembering the name takes skill, luck, power of will, pleasure, pain... Heavenly Father wants to know if we are all in with a willing heart and mind to follow Christ no matter what. "To be tested, we must have the agency to choose between alternatives. To provide alternatives on which to exercise our agency, we must have opposition."

Along with our agency there is responsibility. Lynn G. Robbins calls agency and responsibility a "doctrinal pair." He also says, "When Satan is successful in dividing doctrinal pairs, he begins to wreak havoc upon mankind. It is one of his most cunning strategies to keep people from growing in the light." Everyone seems to want their own free-will. Our human soul not only desires to survive, but to be free. However, as Spirit [the cartoon horse] would say, "with freedom comes responsibility." In the Spirit movie, they're put into a difficult situation where Spirit is on a mission to stop the men from overtaking his homeland. Because he wants to be free, and he wants his family to be free, he's willing to fight for what is right. This is where the disconnect occurs in the world today. Everyone wants freedom, but there's a difference between recognizing the results of our actions and making excuses when something bad happens. "When Satan tempts a person to avoid responsibility, that person subtly surrenders their agency because that person is no longer in control or acting." Slowly but surely, we are actually being led down to prison instead of happiness. Wickedness never was happiness.

Yes I did reference some worldly things in this email, but don't worry, I'm still as cut off from all of it as I have been my entire mission.

Love you all! Sorry for the novel.

Sister Jenne”

Cat Puns Freak Meow (Week 66)

“Well, the email might be a little shorter than it has been this week because we have a lot to do this P-day. However, hopefully it'll still be worth reading.

Random things from this week:

Flu shots, free t-shirts from Harley Davidson, super fast grocery trip on Monday. We also were able to talk with an investigator and teach him the Restoration on his door step and we talked to him about how our message is for families and we now have an appointment set up to teach his family and him.

We went on exchange in Robinswood in Bellevue with our STLs. Sister Anderson and Sister Olsen went over and met this lady who does art inside of the Book of Mormon and paints the pages. She has a blog called scripturefun.com and she watercolors in her Book of Mormon!  We also went on a mini exchange in Totem Lake and it was great to be able to be in their area working with them. It was cool to see what happens when other sisters take the stewardship in their area, follow promptings, and see a miracle!

We had to go to both Zone Conferences because we were doing those trainings. Mine was on prayer, and the overall theme of it was that  many people pray, but few people actually lose themselves in prayer. Matthew 16:25 and this quote were my focus: "Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder." I think that we are often doing too much to search for answers to questions that are in our heart. We do have to study it out, but I think that the answer isn't always going to come in the way that we expect it to. Our attitude is what's most important. I've been trying to focus my prayers outside myself and I've surprisingly received more personal revelation than ever! In losing myself, I am finding myself! the butterfly has been making a ton of appearances. It's awesome sauce.

 We also had an amazing lesson with an investigator and we talked a lot about our path to God and focused most importantly on where we are because she tends to lose confidence when she compares herself to others around her. It was a great spirit filled lesson and she committed to read the Book of Mormon!

We went on an exchange with Sammamish and it twas a day full of finding. Sometimes you look at those days and think they're going to be hard, but it was awesome to just go out and talk to people after a week of meetings and exchanges outside our area! It's good to get stuff done!

Suday was a super busy day. We talked with an investigator and recommitted him to pray. We also had a good conversation with a man named Fred. He lives in the forest and talks about bug freeways and coyotes. He had some pretty crazy ideas about Paul and about people in general but we are gonna go back and talk with him next week.

Sorry this is scattered. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,
Sister Jenne
P.S. we also got called Burt and Ernie by some members”

Catholic Rabbits (Week 65)

“Miracles & events:
-I started painting a painting. We'll see how that goes
-We went to do service for a former investigator & we ended up having an awesome gospel conversation & they just started pulling out pamphlets and a book of Mormon from the shelf
-We have been taking this large rock around to some of our members and teaching a lesson and then giving them 48 hours to be a little "boulder" (get the pun?) We had given one family the rock and when we came to follow up and see how they did their 9 year old son said that while he was at the beach he found out that one of his friends had never heard of the Articles of Faith or even the Book of Mormon. He just couldn't believe it, so he sat and talked to him all about the things he knows to be true. (by the mouth of babes my friends) This young boy just talked to his friend about the gospel and didn't die... the concept of becoming like a child comes in both receiving and sharing the gospel.
-we were inspired to text a former investigator. She texted us and said she has been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon and about the missionaries. Then she texted a member and set up her own lesson with us.
-We had a lesson with a man, and he had read (carefully) all of the pamphlets and the intro/witnessing at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. He was saying how cool the testimony of Joseph Smith is and just describing how important the gospel would be if it were true. He taught himself the Restoration. Literally so golden!!

Some insights:

We often make the mistake of believing that the gospel's many commandments and "rules" leave us bound captive from happiness or freedom to do what we might want to do. However, to understand the gospel is to understand the very essence of freedom. To be free means to be "made or done voluntarily."
We recently met a man who was asking us how we can follow all the small rules and not feel oppressed. He said that he would be so unhappy without his coffee in the morning. He would feel oppressed. Coffee is known to be a harmful substance to intake, especially in high dosage. When we avoid withdrawal symptoms by continuing to do something harmful, we are becoming addicted to that substance. Addiction is involuntarily; and therefore, the opposite of freedom.

The first and greatest commandment is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." We also know that we show our love to God by keeping his commandments and through service to his other children. In the 3rd chapter of 1st Nephi, Lehi is commanded by the Lord to send his sons to get the brass plates from Laban. Rewind a little bit, and God has just barely told Nephi: "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper." After he is told by his father to meet with a wicked & hostile king who is greedy & not likely to give them anything besides death threats, Nephi says "I Nephi said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commanded them." Because God had already promised Nephi many blessings, he had the motivation and the desire to follow commandments, no matter how hard. Laman and Lemuel were not so motivated, to the point where they were dragged, essentially kicking and screaming to talk to Laban about the plates. As I was reading, something that came to mind was confidence. Confidence in the things that matter, and the elements thereof. Nephi had confidence in his own ability and will power to call upon God to deliver him out of the power of his enemy. This type of confidence comes when we believe we're worthy of receiving God's help. We are always receiving help from God, but we are only able to have confidence in Him to accomplish anything when we have a strong testimony.

So, why do we need confidence in the things that matter? Elder Holland said "You will need information. But, in matters of great consequence it is not likely to come unless you want it urgently, faithfully, humbly. Moroni calls it seeking 'with real intent.' If you can seek that way and stay in that mode, not much that the adversary can counter with will dissuade you from a righteous path. You can hang on, whatever the assault and affliction because you have paid the price of conviction. There may come after the fact some competing doubts and confusion, but it will pale when you measure it against the real thing. Remember the real thing. Remember how urgently you have needed help in earlier times and you got it. The Red Sea will open to the honest seeker of revelation. The adversary has power to hedge up the way, to marshal Pharoah's forces and dog our escape right to the water's edge, but he can't produce the real thing. He can't conquer if we will it otherwise. Exerting all our powers, the light will again come, the darkness will again retreat, the safety will be sure."

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." It's all worth it. Every single time following a commandment seems like chore, seems silly, seems unimportant, we are defining who we will become through our agency and choices. Our exalted destiny rests on every day choices; isn't it wonderful that we have a Savior who "went forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind." so that we might receive the promise and reward through our diligence and faith.

The Lord said, "men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." "and then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God."

Another thing: today we went to a meeting with a couple other sister training leaders and the zone leaders. They gave everyone assignments except for us. So President Schofield asked us to stay behind. We had an extra 45 minute meeting about how we are going to have to go to both zone conferences and do 30 minute SOLO trainings. So I will be training on Prayer for 30 minutes 4 times. BY myself. Each time, it will be in front of 2 whole zones. I'm scared but it'll be fine. Sister Anderson will be in a separate room training on studying for investigators. Pray for me on Thursday and Friday that I won't have a legitimate heart attack.

I love and miss all of you! Have a wonderful week.
Sister Jenne”

WARNING! (Week 64)

"This morning at 2am, we woke up to "WARNING CARBON MONOXIDE *BEEP BEEP BEEP*" going over and over. So that freaked us out. We turned it off, ran outside, called President, he told us to leave, so we ran back inside and grabbed some essentials and drove to a different sisters' apartment. I haven't been awake at 2am in ages, much less driving through the back roads of Redmond, WA. It was a little bit eerie..so dark & no one else on the road. Don't worry though because we called 911 and it turns out that we have a faulty detector. FALSE ALARM, but still very startling and an interesting experience.

Onn Saturday we had this crazy day. We had some lessons with investigators planned and then the Russian sisters called (Sisters Piddubna & Christensen) telling us that there is a Ukrainian Festival, and they want to go, but Sister Christensen is feeling really sick and could we come and do splits with them. 2 seconds later, one investigator called to cancel, and we decided to just stop by the other in the morning instead. So, all of the sudden, the day was free! We were driving to Bellevue to do the splits, and we kept hearing something in our tire clinking against the road. We get there and Sister Piddubna and I are walking around and we get a text from Sister Christensen and Sister Anderson..."We're on the side of the freeway with a flat tire, but don't worry the district leader is coming..." So while they're supposed to be going home to rest from sickness, they're trying to get our car fixed for 3 hours.

Meanwhile, we have people approaching us with the intent to argue. It was weird. I almost had forgotten how different the culture is. Almost every single person that we talked to had the same concern "Why are you reading the Book of Mormon" "Who is Mormon" "You girls really should just read the Bible" I also got told that I look like I am from Kazakhstan or China. I also was fasting, and so all of the amazing food was a no go. I did buy a crepe at the end of the day.

Every time I am in a similar situation, I start to remember the importance of testifying as a missionary. I remember that the one thing that people cannot argue with or take away is my sincere testimony. If someone's heart is hard, seeking out the flaws of what you say, it probably won't be easy for them to allow the spirit to penetrate their heart. All we have to do is create an environment where the spirit is present and pray that "those you are teaching will feel the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost." In fact, the Prophet Brigham Young said "If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world has been sent to me with the Book of Mormon and declared in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like smoke which arises only to vanish away. But, when I saw a man without eloquence or talents for public speaking, who could only say 'I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord' the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and a light, glory and immortality were before me. I was encircled by the, and I knew for myself that the testimony of that man was true."

I think this verse describes how Sister Pidduba and I were feeling: "It came to pass that there was a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways leaving Nephi [us] alone, as he [we] were standing in the midst of them." There were people all around us. Good people! But, we were alone in our testimonies. We were feeling "much cast down." In the Book of Mormon, Alma gave up the judgement seat to Nephihah so that "he himself might go forth among his people and that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the Word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them."

As people try and argue with me about the Book of Mormon and as they encourage me to "do a little research," my testimony is only strengthened. I have read the book. I have prayed about it. I have felt the confirming witness of the spirit of the Lord time and time again. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I agree with Joseph Smith when he said "the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book." Now, there are a lot of cool historical facts and miracles surrounding the Book of Mormon, but the sweet testimony in my heart came from a heartfelt prayer with a true desire to know the truth. I know that when we ask, God answers. It's in His own time, but he does answer.

Our area is doing really awesome. It's not easy, but we are seeing miracles every day! We have an investigator who is really progressing and is super interested in the Book of Mormon. We got to our appointment on Sunday and he wasn't there. But, he left a note on his door apologizing and asking that we please come back because he's been reading the introduction and testimonies and is going to keep reading. I just want him to progress toward baptism! This week we also met with a PMF who wants their 9 year old son baptized asap. he will probably get baptized on the last Saturday of the transfer, so that's awesome! MIRACLES MY FRIENDS

I love you all! have a GREAT week,

Cectpa Jenne"