My dear friends and family,
As of yesterday, I am officially half-way done with my mission! That is pure craziness!! While home feels very far away, I also feel like I just entered the MTC yesterday. I pretend I know what I'm doing, but at heart I'm still very much a groentje (greenie)! Leven is gek. :)
It's been a while since I last emailed, because of our late p-day this week, and honestly all the days just kind of blur together. So here are some highlights of my recent history!
Zone training!! It's the last one with President and Zuster Robinson, so we were combined with another zone for half of it, where they addressed us, after which we split off into our own zones for normal zone training. It was awesome, as always! Zuster Robinson talked about 13 promises God has given us as endowed, covenant people. They are all from section 109 of Doctrine and Covenants. Take some time this week to study that section - it is truly amazing what God does for His children! President then talked about the progress this mission has seen in his time, and how if we continue to be optimistic and think creatively we can keep up the work and make even more progress in the future. He especially emphasized how we are 100% accountable for 100% of the results we see 100% of the time. When we have this attitude of accountability, and we own the results we see, that gives us power to change our results. This is so true, in every area of our lives!
On Monday we spent the whole day doing service! We were helping out at a small daycare/school for handicapped children, cleaning/sanding/repainting a shed and other outdoor surfaces. We enlisted our district and zone leaders to help us, and the people we were helping were so happy with all the work we did. We'll be going back again next Wednesday to help some more. Service is the best!
On Tuesday, after a wonderful district meeting, I went on exchanges in Amsterdam again. Zuster Doxey and I helped a 9 year old make cupcakes for her mother, who is a less-active in the ward. The mom (Chelsey) was totally surprised and showed so much love for her daughter, it was beautiful! And then they were going out to dinner together so we rode the same metro together, and we had a miraculous conversation with Chelsey in which she told us that she wants to be more active in the church, meet more with the zusters, and give her daughter good influences through the church. It was awesome and I'm so excited for the Amsterdam zusters to help Chelsey with her new vision for herself! Service, especially in families, always works wonders. :)
Well, I must go but of course I could never leave without a thought! As I stand half way through my mission and look back on what I've done and experienced, I can see that I have learned an incredible amount. I can also see that, while I'm still doing my best, I've got a long way to go. As I pondered that, I was thinking about how it is possible that we can always be learning, and yet always feel as though we're already doing all we can. I've come to the conclusion that it's all about practice makes perfect! As you practice something, you won't always do it right. But if you correct your mistakes and don't stop trying, you will make progress. And as you continue doing that, things that used to be hard and take up (for example) 15% of your time and energy, now are easy and only take 2% of your time and energy. It's the same with being good and doing good! The more you do it, the greater your capacity to do even more good, because you are continally creating more "room" for more good things as the good things you already do become easier, then habit, then second nature. This process continues until, one day, we reach perfection thanks to the help of the great Finisher. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, through which I can be a little better every day, and through which I can become a little more like Him with every good choice I make. It is wonderful to me!
-Zuster Jensen :)
As of yesterday, I am officially half-way done with my mission! That is pure craziness!! While home feels very far away, I also feel like I just entered the MTC yesterday. I pretend I know what I'm doing, but at heart I'm still very much a groentje (greenie)! Leven is gek. :)
It's been a while since I last emailed, because of our late p-day this week, and honestly all the days just kind of blur together. So here are some highlights of my recent history!
Zone training!! It's the last one with President and Zuster Robinson, so we were combined with another zone for half of it, where they addressed us, after which we split off into our own zones for normal zone training. It was awesome, as always! Zuster Robinson talked about 13 promises God has given us as endowed, covenant people. They are all from section 109 of Doctrine and Covenants. Take some time this week to study that section - it is truly amazing what God does for His children! President then talked about the progress this mission has seen in his time, and how if we continue to be optimistic and think creatively we can keep up the work and make even more progress in the future. He especially emphasized how we are 100% accountable for 100% of the results we see 100% of the time. When we have this attitude of accountability, and we own the results we see, that gives us power to change our results. This is so true, in every area of our lives!
On Monday we spent the whole day doing service! We were helping out at a small daycare/school for handicapped children, cleaning/sanding/repainting a shed and other outdoor surfaces. We enlisted our district and zone leaders to help us, and the people we were helping were so happy with all the work we did. We'll be going back again next Wednesday to help some more. Service is the best!
On Tuesday, after a wonderful district meeting, I went on exchanges in Amsterdam again. Zuster Doxey and I helped a 9 year old make cupcakes for her mother, who is a less-active in the ward. The mom (Chelsey) was totally surprised and showed so much love for her daughter, it was beautiful! And then they were going out to dinner together so we rode the same metro together, and we had a miraculous conversation with Chelsey in which she told us that she wants to be more active in the church, meet more with the zusters, and give her daughter good influences through the church. It was awesome and I'm so excited for the Amsterdam zusters to help Chelsey with her new vision for herself! Service, especially in families, always works wonders. :)
Well, I must go but of course I could never leave without a thought! As I stand half way through my mission and look back on what I've done and experienced, I can see that I have learned an incredible amount. I can also see that, while I'm still doing my best, I've got a long way to go. As I pondered that, I was thinking about how it is possible that we can always be learning, and yet always feel as though we're already doing all we can. I've come to the conclusion that it's all about practice makes perfect! As you practice something, you won't always do it right. But if you correct your mistakes and don't stop trying, you will make progress. And as you continue doing that, things that used to be hard and take up (for example) 15% of your time and energy, now are easy and only take 2% of your time and energy. It's the same with being good and doing good! The more you do it, the greater your capacity to do even more good, because you are continally creating more "room" for more good things as the good things you already do become easier, then habit, then second nature. This process continues until, one day, we reach perfection thanks to the help of the great Finisher. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, through which I can be a little better every day, and through which I can become a little more like Him with every good choice I make. It is wonderful to me!
-Zuster Jensen :)
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