My Ship Wrecked! BOOYAH! (Week 24)

""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." -Elder Dallin H. Oaks

How many of us are grateful for the opposition that comes into our lives? I have been thinking a lot about this week about the choice of being happy. The choice of letting Christ influence our lives in every single aspect. I could be frustrated because we haven't baptized yet. I could be down because it's cold and rainy and just downright dreary almost every day. I could have a really bad attitude because of a lot of things! But what good does that do? Paul teaches such an important lesson about the trials in this life in His epistle to the Corinthians:

2 Cor. 12:7-10

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

He was beaten with rods. He was stones. And yet, he gloried in my infirmities, because he knew that the power of Christ is manifest in us when we are going through hard times. I don't know if I'm at the point yet, where I feel like I'll pray for trials. But wow I am so grateful for everything that I have experienced. The good and the bad. It's interesting how it's a lot easier to pinpoint the hardest times in our lives. I truly believe it's because those are the times when we learned the most! One of the APs was giving a training at zone conference this week and he said something that really struck me. He said something along the lines of..."I imagine Paul saying this every time he has a trial...'YES! I SHIPWRECKED! Now that means I can use the Atonement! Booyah!'" Wow, not going to lie, that struck me to the center! How many people have that attitude? maybe like 0.0001% of the population. And we aren't perfect, but we need to be striving to be at that point! And the coolest part is that Heavenly Father doesn't expect anything more than us trying our hardest. It's so wonderful. Okay, the fact that this email is spaced all weird and I cannot figure out how to change it is REALLY getting on my nerves. Hope all of you wonderful people don't get too annoyed by it haha sorry bout it.

Enough preaching! This week was so much fun! We had Zone Conference, which is always a blast! Sister Orr and I got to do an example role-play in front of our whole zone! so scary, but so much fun! it's all about improving our contacting, so it's definitely important to role-play. I'll probably role-play for the rest of my life for every single situation that I encounter so as to be ready. Highly recommend role-playing in everyday life it's a great tool!

If anyone is looking for an interesting study, study Mosiah 13 and the Law of Moses in the Bible Dictionary. And then go to all of the references and footnotes in the Bible and BOM for the Law of Moses and you will find some really cool things!

Love all of you so much! Have a fantastic week, and don't forget that Saturday is always Seattle Saturday and it's a day of miracles! Look for and embrace the beauty in others. Every single person is loved equally by God. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Sister Jenne"

She didn't send any pictures this week, but I'll be sure to ask her to send some for next week!! 

Aggressive Driving (Week 23)

I totally forgot the password to this, but I just figured out how to get in! YAyy!!! 

Here's the first one we missed:

"I'll start out with some funny things from the last 2 weeks (since last week's email was a mess and I forgot to put everything in there haha). Some stories:

"Sorry"

I went on exchanges with a Samoan sister. We were teaching a little 9 year old girl and her grandparents were there. We were teaching about what happens when we die. She asked when people die. We responded that it's usually when they get old. She looked up at her grandma, and really innocently said "sorry." We all laughed so hard. Except the grandma. Polynesians>>>

Typical Sister Missionary

You know how Sister missionaries are characterized as frumpy and just not super cute or fashionable? Well Sister Orr would be the perfect embodiment of that (haha jk only this once). She might or might not have left the apartment with one of those big clips that they use at the hair cutting salon in her hair, and neither of us noticed it until we got home. It was wonderful to make fun of her for a few days hahah.

Airport

I had to drive (really scary) and guess what? I don't know how the heck to get home, especially not in the dark...so we were in the car and I knew that we lived near the airport and so I just told the sister that I was with to put "airport" in the GPS. Well, it definitely took us straight to the airport and we drove right through the arrivals and departures and that place where you go to drop people off. What an adventure. It was pretty stressful, but really fun to laugh about afterwards. Don't worry, I eventually found the apartment, only a few minutes late to nightly planning!!

"Aggressive Driving"

Sister Jenne really shouldn't be driving in seattle. I somehow ran a red light but also skidded to a stop in the middle of an intersection ( I don't really know what happened exaclty) and so it was really scary because there were cars and I had to figure out how to get out of that intersection without dying. so the tiwi box in the car yelled at me for aggressively driving (I was swerving a lot). Sooo now I have that on my record.

This week we did a lot of fun things! Exchanges with Russian sisters! Preparing 72 hour kits for the whole mission! Leadership meeting! Meeting unexpected members who gave us water! Meeting and talking with a lot of less actives "by chance." God was guiding us so perfectly this week. We didn't find a Russian who wanted to hear the gospel, but we definitely were able to help other missionaries in their areas with English speakers. One girl has never heard of the Book or Mormon or seen missionaries! She was so hungry for the life that Christ gives to all of us. It was such a powerful experience to find her, even though we won't actually be able to teach her. I know that she will be taken care of.

Just so everyone knows, I would not be here today, alive, if it weren't for a prompting that I received. There were a lot of close calls with cars this week. We were in a parking lot, parked near the entrance. It's a mission rule that I back the car to make sure that Sis Orr doesn't run into anything by standing behind the car and telling her to stop if there's anything in the way or a car coming. I usually stand about 10 feet behind. Essentially in the middle of the road. This particulzar time, I felt a quiet thought tell me that I needed to back up to the curb, out of the middle of the road. Not 10 seconds later, a car turned the corner and zoomed past the exact spot where I had just been standing. My heart was beating so fast. I knew that I had come really close to death. Sister Orr and I just talked in awe, afterwards, about how God saved my life. There were a few times this week in sketchier parts of Seattle where I might not have felt comfortable walking if it weren't for the protection and guidance of the Holy Ghost. I bear testimony that the covenants that we make as members of the church at baptism and the temple really will protect us spiritually and sometimes even physically! Don't forget that!

An interesting passage that I have been thinking about is somewhere in 2nd Thessalonians. I don't remember exactly where, but Paul (I think?) is talking about missionary work. What I got from the verses is that even when someone doesn't want to listen to us, we still need to listen to them. Even if they want to argue, we still need to try our hardest to be edified and inspired by what they are saying.

Mosiah 2: 20-21

A good thing to ponder is how we can rejoice. I've been thinking a lot this week about how and why I am feeling certain feelings. If we want to go through that (sometimes painful) process of "peeling off our dragon skin" (narnia/c.s.lewis), we really do have to take the time for self-reflection and looking at the why and acknowledging our own faults with the intent of letting the Atonement heal us. Prayer is my favorite time to do this.

Important principle of life:

Constructive feedback is done out of love. How can we improve if we don't even love each other to give each other suggestions on how to improve? How can we expect to do better next time.

Love all of you so much! The work is moving forward, and the world is full of miracles everyday. Don't forget that if we focus on the world, we will forget about what's really important. Just like if you are driving on the loud freeway, and playing music at the same volume that if you focus on the freeway (world), then you won't even be able to hear the music (important things in life). Maybe we should all focus a little more on our families and how we can become more Christ-like. I invite all of you to choose one thing that pulls you away from christ this week to give up. I'd love to hear the difference that it makes!

LOVE,

Cectpa Jenne"

Love you all!! :)

You Are A Son or Daughter of God (week 22)

So Sister Jenne emailed me separately and had me go back and take out any names from converts or investigators (apparently they aren't supposed to post names online.... which actually makes sense). So I did that and some of the past posts are a little confusing now. But yeah. So any brackets you see anywhere, that's why. 

Here's our email! 

"For the first time this week, I talked to a Ukrainian man all by myself without any help. I was on exchanges with a sister who does NOT speak any Russian whatsoever (except she knows how to say goodbye). Lemme tell you, that was a pretty scary prospect, knowing that I was going to be alone in talking to people! It worked out so well! It was so amazing how much God helped me. I could understand the basic jist of every single thing that was said, and I was able to reply and testify and bring the spirit into the conversations that I had with people. I was thinking a lot about how far my Russian has come over the last 5 months (I also hit 5 months this week, which is absolutely insane!). It's incredible to see the improvement in myself. And to recognize God's hand in everything. I believe that trusting Heavenly Father's plan is one of the hardest things that we will learn in this life. There are so many aspects of life. Ups and downs. It's so easy to blame the bad things on God and then take credit for all of the happy things that happen. Or give the credit to other people. Is that how things should be? Do we truly believe that God has a perfect plan for everything that happens in this life? Something that was created from the foundation of the world? That's an impossible concept to grasp! It's something that literally takes a lifetime of faith in our Savior to even begin to understand. My journey to discovering the mysteries of God has started with my mission! I challenge all of you to work on your journey today...because if it doesn't happen today, it probably won't happen tomorrow either!

We had a really long weekly planning session this week. Like 6 hours long. Quite a long time to be planning and setting goals and being inside on one of the only beautiful days of the week (of course). We were spending a lot of time using a GPS to figure out how to be effective in our routes every day. here's my metaphor for the week. So basically we went into the abyss of our GPS's abilities. And found some pretty cool features. There were a lot of features that weren't particularly helpful. And then OH WHAT JOY! We discovered something that will change GPS usage in Russian South forever. The "OPTIMIZE" button. There is a button that will optimize your route for you! Who would have known! (probably everyone except Sister Orr and I already knows this, but bear with me please)... The GPS will do everything for us, all we have to do is load in some addresses! The GPS is like a map of our lives. We can enter in destinations in our own order and time and then get to them eventually. The GPS has all of these tools that are meant to help us find our final destination, but sometimes we put in other addresses too and so there are stops along the way. Each stop could either be a positive or negative experience. The Atonement helps us to optimize our route. it works for us and makes each stop along the way happen in the nest way that will lead us to the final destination after this life. The gap between our own attempt at navigating life (what we can do) and what we need to do, is closed. All of the features like church, scriptures, and prayer hep us to have a personalized route, but the Atonement is the best way to have the most efficient guidance. We put forth as much effort as we can, but ultimately christ has to do all of the hardest work for us. We can type in as many addresses as we want, but without christ, we don't have the eternal and overall perspective which will cause a bunch of back-tracking and driving around in circles rather than following the straight and narrow path. Isn't the Atonement wonderful?

Also something I learned: When I was praying last night, I learned something! God gave us this body, our personality, our intelligence, our strengths, our weaknesses, and our spirit! Most importantly, we are who we are as his sons and daughters. When I am self-critical, I am criticizing one of God's creations! Me! He created me. I have to respect myself just as I respect god'd other creations. Find joy in myself as a daughter of God.This was revolutionary to me!

The spirit taught me some really important things this week! sorry for the crazy email. I'll include more funny stories next week when I have more time!

Love you all!

Cectpa Jenne"

Sister Jenne had some really awesome insight this week. Hope y'all all enjoyed. STAY TUNEDDD :)

So Much Potential (Week 21)

I'm thankful for Mondays because I get to email Sister Jenne. :)

"Hello All!! From the cold and rainy, but miracle-filled city of Seattle! It's great to get to communicate with all of you through the wonderful miracle of the internet, once again! I'm in a super great mood because we all got fed Costco muffins and orange juice this morning by the mission presidency. For those of you from Dothan who might not know what Costco is, basically it's a better version of Sam's. I might or might not be turning into a west-coast person ;) I never thought I could betray the South, but I am falling in love with this place!

So this past week [one of the members from the Russian group in Bothell] actually moved back to Ukraine! It was a huge step for her. It was so sad for us, because we have become so attached to her! I think that it's going to be great for her though, because we contacted the church over there and so hopefully they will reach out to her and she will be able to go to church with her neighbors and be able to have a calling and everything. I don't know if I've ever met a person with more faith in God's plan. We could tell that she wasn't too keen on the idea of moving back because all of her family lives here; however (from my limited Russian skills and from what Sis. Orr told me later), she just kept talking about how everything was going to be great and how excited she is to see what God has in store for her!

Speaking of God's plan, this week, after having little to NO success with any of the things that we were trying to do, it was really hard for me to understand God's will in all of this. But, let me testify of the power of PRAYER! Prayer is such a blessing. It's a lot of work and it's really scary to lay our will down and try our hardest to pick up God's will even though half of the time, His plan doesn't align with how we think things should be working out. We can't just kneel there and list off a long line of things that we are grateful for and then ask for things. It has to be a conversation where we are humbly asking our Heavenly Father for help, after we have pondered and studied it out for ourselves! I'm not perfect at this, but I have seen such a difference in my sense of direction in the work as I use my resources. It's so hard when the way that I define success doesn't line up with the way that God defines success!

After a succession of failures, we found a way to find TWO HUNDRED new people to talk with. Yep, you read that right. TWO HUNDRED. God works in mysterious ways. Just when we are getting discouraged, and not wanting to move on, he gives us a miracle! It's just like in the Book of Mormon. There was never a book written more for our day!

Not much more to write this week, but I'll do a great email next week...promise!

Love and miss all of you! Have a fantastic week!

Sister Jenne"

Happy Monday!!

Space Needle or Donut on a Stick? (Week 20)

Sorry this is so late! Cectpa Jenne had a fantastic week!

"So many things happened this week! Sister Orr broke the vacuum at the car wash...we went and did some very "Seattle" things... the space needle...glass gardens! It was an awesome experience. I know that a lot of missionaries don't get to do so because it's not in their area. I feel so blessed to be in the Russian work, sometimes. The view from the Space Needle was incredible (pretty sure we saw Canada). You could see Pugent Sound and all sorts of cool lakes and skyscrapers and such.

Tuesday I got to meet Sister Drake! She is the sweetest person ever and invited us to Snoqualmie Falls to meet her Russian speaking house cleaners! Such a great experience, I loved getting to meet my 1st cousin once removed, finally! Now I know that I have a house to stay in when I come back to Seattle after my mission ;)

This week one of our goals was to speak Russian to each other when we are having normal conversations every day. It's like in the MTC when they tell you to SYL and then no one actually does it because you literally don't know how to say anything in your language besides a prayer and a testimony. (I know a little more than I knew in the MTC, now though haha) We have had this goal for probably about 10 weeks now. It never works. We never end up actually doing it more than about 10% of our conversation because it's just sooo much easier to express myself in English. However, this past week we were thinking about how we can change the goal to make it something we would actually do because if you just do the same thing over and over and expect different results, you won't get them! (which is super logical, but it took us 10 weeks to figure out...) Anyways, we made it into a game/fun competition where whoever speaks English when they know how to say it in Russian gets a tally. Then at the end of the day, whoever has more tallies has to give the other a neck/back rub. Works out really well, and I can testify that it has already helped my conversational Russian a ton! I'm more at ease just talking to people now. It's kind of amazing! I can see God's hand in the past few weeks trying to push us toward doing more of speaking in Russian with each other, but I just haven't had the desire to do it! Now that I have some motivation, I am doing it and seeing the blessings! So awesome; it's a lesson that I won't forget in making future goals.

As far as food goes this week, we tried a new Russian food called Halva. It's sunflower seeds crushed up and sugar (essentially). Sounds really weird right? It looks absolutely disgusting. It's so good! It's such an interesting taste. We found a cute little shop that is full of Rusisian and Ukrainian foods. I can't wait to go back on Pday sometime and try everything. We also tried something called a "beef samsa" that was pretty yummy. Russians love to stick things inside of bread like meat and mashed potatoes and then eat it all of the time. (I am not complaining!). I also ate Falafel. Very yummy. My eating experiences have expanded a whole lot. 

Yesterday we didn't get a transfer call and so that means I'll be sending Sister Orr home and so I'll have been with her for 3 transfers. That's the second longest amount of time she's been with any companion, which makes me probably her second favorite ;) She also just got called this morning as a sister training leader and so we will have a ton of exchanges in our area. Exchanges are when a set of sisters comes over to our area for a day/spends the night and we switch companions for the purpose of learning from each other. That means I'll be going out to do Russian work with companions that don't speak any Russian at all. Lemme just say that I am super nervous about that.I know that it will be a tremendous growing experience.

Love you all! Have a fantastic week.

Sister Jenne"

Stay tuned!!! :)

Overwhelmed By Kindness (Week 19)

Sister Jenne had a really awesome week! Here's her recap:

"I don't know if this is an experience that is solely unique to missions with a bunch of different cultures like here in Seattle, but we seriously never see Americans. Any white people that we see are usually European or Eastern European (Russiaaaa). So far I've met people from: Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, France, China, Thailand, Israel, Somalia, Africa and many others that I can't exactly recall at the moment. It's a giant melting pot. There are a lot of people from Afghanistan and the other countries in the middle east. Most of them don't know very much English at all. This was the case with a family that we met this week. They have been here for 7 months from Afghanistan. We walked up to this apartment complex in the pouring down typhoon rain and it was the first door that we knocked. Of course, when you knock a door and they don't speak English you usually smile and then say goodbye and walk away. Give them a picture of Christ or something and hope that one day they will remember that you smiled at them.... but this time, they insisted that we come in out of the cold rain into their humble apartment. I don't know why they wanted two random American girls to come into their home, but they sat us down and proceeded to bring out tea and food. It was interesting explaining to them that we aren't allowed to drink the tea, but it worked out and we ended up with mango juice instead. Their apartment wasn't nice by any means, and they didn't seem to have much, but they gave us a ton of food and also insisted that we take it with us when we left and gave us these cool leather bags also. With the limited communication, we were able to find out that they are Muslim and that they pray. It was very peaceful when they were showing us how they pray. There was a special spirit among this family, I am telling you! We fell absolutely head over heels in love with them! There was this cool Afghani bread that the wife made. It was a little spicy/peppery and it was kind of like naan (that indian bread stuff), but it had some sort of spinach inside of it. Anyone who's been to Afghanistan might know what I'm talking about...Brother Clark? anyone? I don't know who else would know. Anyways, we were completely overwhelmed by their kindness and willingness to serve us, whom they had never met. Hopefully, we will be able to find someone who will go and teach English to them. They were so excited when we said that we are "teachers," because they want to learn English. I cannot imagine how hard that would be to live somewhere where you don't know what is going on or how to speak the language. Oh wait, actually I do kind of understand...thanks to Brother Hale my first day in the MTC haha those were fun times.

Radiating the Light of Christ

We did a day with Sister Peterson going out with us. Every time we get out of the car, we pray. So if Sis. Peterson is there, we take turns praying. She prayed that people would see the way that we radiate the light of Christ. The cool part is that after she said that prayer, a lady complimented us on how we were just "full of light." Heavenly Father answers prayers! the church is true haha.

There is a man at the Food Bank who spent 5 minutes talking with me about how I need windshield wipers for my glasses because it's Seattle and it rains a lot and I'm always having to clean my glasses. I decided that I'll just wear contacts on the rainy days that we are planning to spend a lot of time outside lol.

Miracle of the week:

We had the first investigator that we have been able to get to church since I have been here. That was a really cool experience. She said that she felt like she was at home and liked it a lot more than the other churches she has gone to because she felt comfortable and felt that no one was judging her. I feel kind of bad though, because we might have come on a little bit too strongly. She's pretty shy, and I think she was feeling a little bit of pressure from us. However, I guess that we have to be bold! If she's ready, she's ready and we have to establish those expectations so that she knows our purpose. It's just that she is a little bit shy and so we might need to be more delicate in the future. She said that she will come to church next Sunday and continue to pray and allow us to meet with her this week as well, so we have a progressing investigator! In the Russian work! So excited about that. It was perfect also because she made friends with one of our members who sometimes feels a little bit lonely! Please pray for [her!] :)

last P-day we made really cool shirts at a member's house. They have a heat press and vinyl and a huge industrial vinyl cutter. She's a graphic designer and so we could do whatever we wanted. So basically I had her do the temple and then in Russian it says "choose truth and high expectations" on it. Then I made one that was the Seattle skyline with a gold mount Rainier in the background. Everyone here is obsessed with Mount Rainier. I didn't take a picture though sooo sorry you don't get to see the cool t shirts.

Every person that we met this week (well,. every person worth mentioning...) was sooo nice and kind to us! I really really have seen God's hand in our work this week. The rain can be tiring and it hasn't been sunny which is an adjustment that I am having to make. I'm glad I have Christ to lean back on when I don't feel 100% great! Loving life and having a great time here in Seattle! I wish everyone the best this week! Don't forget that you're a child of God 

With Love,

Cectpa Jenne"

Lots of pictures this week! I love being able to see how happy Sister Jenne is. She is changing so many lives and I'm so proud. <3 

Everything is a Metaphor (Week 18)

I so thought I already posted this, but today at church, I was told that I didn't. Oooops. Here we go though. :)

"We were so blessed this week to have Elder and Sister EchoHawk come and do a mission tour! Basically, it was like a special zone conference, where the west and east halves of the mission had meetings with them for several hours. It was very inspiring and uplifting, and everyone always leaves all fired up to go out and share the truth! Some of my thoughts from the meeting: The Lord is working to change us in this life. We didn't come here to simply stay how we were and then go to heaven! We go through the exact things that we need to in this life in order to return to Him and have learned the things that we needed to! But, we aren't alone in doing this! We have our Savior Jesus Christ, and He will meet us exactly where we are. No matter our challenges or concerns, they will be resolved through Him. I think that that is evidence enough of His love for us.

Something else...think one of my favorite parts was when Sister EchoHawk had missionaries come up and teach her 15 year old self. That really made me realize that we truly cannot assume things about people! Just because someone says something about themselves, it doesn't mean we have a right to place them in a box based on stereotypes. I think that sometimes I label people immediately as soon as they tell me that what religion they belong to or don't belong to...it's like I have this cookie cutter reaction to them because of their beliefs! However, I know that that's not the right type of attitude to have and so I am planning on working on seeing people as individuals and figuring out how to show them my love. Last night, we contacted a referral, and all she really wanted to do was tell us that we do NOT need the Book of Mormon. And somewhere in my head, I just thought. "I don't even know this woman's name, how can I expect her to feel my love when I haven't even asked her name?" So I stopped saying things to "prove" that we need the BOM and asked her her name. Then I said that we were very glad to see her and be talking to her. And then I tried to very personally testify of how the Book of Mormon is from God and how I personally found out. Of course, it didn't convince her, but I know that I felt the spirit a lot stronger when I felt myself trying to see her as an individual.

We met a cool man from Africa who was the caregiver at a home for older people. One of the men that lived there came out and told us that he was a missionary like us once and that he had 4 sons who all served missions. It was cool. We asked if he had any advice, and he simply said "don't forget that the gospel is true and that we will be happy if we live up to it." I thought that that was an all-encompassing statement that we all would do well to remember about many different things in our lives!

This morning I ran into a screen door. I think I've gotten so used to following Sister Orr around, that as soon as I try to go first I just run into this screen door instead of opening the door all of the day. It's a good metaphor. We shouldn't be content with just following people around and being content with our lives! We have to act and find things out for ourselves and discover new knowledge and find out more and more every day! Like I said earlier, we are on this earth to learn, not to follow blindly! Since I've become a missionary, I've realized that literally everything is a life metaphor.

Miracle of the week! Remember the van guy? Well we called him on Saturday and he told us that he watched General Conference! All we did was text him the link because we knew he was out of town, but he watched it! Super great news :) How could anyone not enjoy hearing from men of God?

I got to write in Brother Slava's infamous book. I'll attach a picture. Also, I love my new dress :) Also a picture is attached!

A lot has happened with my personal testimony in my time as a missionary. I have heard the Holy Ghost clearly speak to me as answers to prayer. I cannot believe how below my privilege I used to be living. Take advantage of all of the small blessings that God places in your life every single day! I know that we are more blessed than we realize and that if we open our eyes, we will see countless blessings and tender mercies that our Heavenly Father has given us.

With a lot of love,

Sister Jenne"

LOVELOVELOVE THIS SISTER OF MINE <3