Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice
My dear family and friends,
Thanks to my wonderful family for the package! They sent me all of the pumpkin-y things you could possibly think of and some other fun things as well. And as I reflected on the package and on my week, I found several parallels which will become clear - stay tuned! :)
Well, it has been a very busy week! There's lots to tell about, and it includes a little bit of everything. We started with a great p-day - we headed up to Zaanse Schans with the Haarlem elders, where they have real working windmills you can go inside of and other fun stuff. We went into a sawmill where the mill was cutting logs - I had no idea how complicated those things were on the inside!
On Tuesday we did service pretty much all day, and on Wednesday we had appointments all day which were both great. And then Thursday was Zone Training! I was asked to play a musical numbers, and I was once again awed by the blessings of Heavenly Father. I found a piece to play on Sunday, had only about 2 1/2 hours total to practice it throughout the week, and it went pretty well. We are so blessed for accepting what is asked of us!
That afternoon and the next day there were more great appointments, and then Saturday was Zuster's Conference! All the sisters in the mission (about 36 or so) gathered in the mission home and we just had a whole day of love being blasted at us. It was great. :) We saw old companions and got caught up, did a couple small service projects, were told that we were amazing daughters of God, got surprise letters from out parents, and then we each got a cupcake and a rose as we walked out the door. I didn't know what to do with so much love by the end of the day! They take good care of us here. :)
And the big news of Sunday - transfer calls!! I will be going to Apeldoorn to work with Zuster Ramirez (who is from somewhere in South America, I don't remember exactly where. I've heard she's wonderful though). I must admit, I am extremely saddened to be leaving Haarlem and IJmuiden. It has been a wonderful place with wonderful people, and I have really seen people come closer to Christ here. However, I know that transfers are inspired and there will be good things waiting for me ahead.
And now we come to my reflections! :) I was thinking about pumpkin things and how they are very often combined with spices. My family knows I love pumpkin! It has a mellow, sweet flavor that is kind of like our lives. Our lives aren't always extremely exciting, but for the most part it is sweet and filled with good things. But then, there's the spicy things in life too. Like getting transferred when you don't want to leave an area yet. :') And spices by themselves don't taste good at all! They are overpowering and bitter. However, pumpkin by itself is a little boring and bland. It is when the spices are added that we have a beautiful, tasty creation that never fails to disappoint. So be sure to accept the spices in your life, because the enhance the whole product. The key is to always keep in mind the whole recipe, that eternal perspective. I have a very firm testimony that when we get the judgement and we're looking back on our lives, we will say, "Now I understand. I see that it had to happen that way. Thank You for giving me these things - the blessings and the trials. I needed them both."
If you're having a hard time facing the future with faith (and we all have trouble with that), be sure to go the the Lord in prayer and humility. Open your heart and mind for the messages from General Conference this weekend - best weekend of the year! I promise you will be inspired and uplifted, and you will figure out how to turn your life (which sometimes looks like a mess of pumpkin and random spices) into a delicious pumpkin pie. Enjoy and eet smakelijk! :D
-Zuster Jensen
Thanks to my wonderful family for the package! They sent me all of the pumpkin-y things you could possibly think of and some other fun things as well. And as I reflected on the package and on my week, I found several parallels which will become clear - stay tuned! :)
Well, it has been a very busy week! There's lots to tell about, and it includes a little bit of everything. We started with a great p-day - we headed up to Zaanse Schans with the Haarlem elders, where they have real working windmills you can go inside of and other fun stuff. We went into a sawmill where the mill was cutting logs - I had no idea how complicated those things were on the inside!
On Tuesday we did service pretty much all day, and on Wednesday we had appointments all day which were both great. And then Thursday was Zone Training! I was asked to play a musical numbers, and I was once again awed by the blessings of Heavenly Father. I found a piece to play on Sunday, had only about 2 1/2 hours total to practice it throughout the week, and it went pretty well. We are so blessed for accepting what is asked of us!
That afternoon and the next day there were more great appointments, and then Saturday was Zuster's Conference! All the sisters in the mission (about 36 or so) gathered in the mission home and we just had a whole day of love being blasted at us. It was great. :) We saw old companions and got caught up, did a couple small service projects, were told that we were amazing daughters of God, got surprise letters from out parents, and then we each got a cupcake and a rose as we walked out the door. I didn't know what to do with so much love by the end of the day! They take good care of us here. :)
And the big news of Sunday - transfer calls!! I will be going to Apeldoorn to work with Zuster Ramirez (who is from somewhere in South America, I don't remember exactly where. I've heard she's wonderful though). I must admit, I am extremely saddened to be leaving Haarlem and IJmuiden. It has been a wonderful place with wonderful people, and I have really seen people come closer to Christ here. However, I know that transfers are inspired and there will be good things waiting for me ahead.
And now we come to my reflections! :) I was thinking about pumpkin things and how they are very often combined with spices. My family knows I love pumpkin! It has a mellow, sweet flavor that is kind of like our lives. Our lives aren't always extremely exciting, but for the most part it is sweet and filled with good things. But then, there's the spicy things in life too. Like getting transferred when you don't want to leave an area yet. :') And spices by themselves don't taste good at all! They are overpowering and bitter. However, pumpkin by itself is a little boring and bland. It is when the spices are added that we have a beautiful, tasty creation that never fails to disappoint. So be sure to accept the spices in your life, because the enhance the whole product. The key is to always keep in mind the whole recipe, that eternal perspective. I have a very firm testimony that when we get the judgement and we're looking back on our lives, we will say, "Now I understand. I see that it had to happen that way. Thank You for giving me these things - the blessings and the trials. I needed them both."
If you're having a hard time facing the future with faith (and we all have trouble with that), be sure to go the the Lord in prayer and humility. Open your heart and mind for the messages from General Conference this weekend - best weekend of the year! I promise you will be inspired and uplifted, and you will figure out how to turn your life (which sometimes looks like a mess of pumpkin and random spices) into a delicious pumpkin pie. Enjoy and eet smakelijk! :D
-Zuster Jensen
Monday, September 21, 2015
Lots of Pictures!
These are from Zaanse Schans :)
Inside a log-sawing windmill
Our wood is famous! :D
There were giant klompen, so of course we had to get in. ;)
At the klompen museum :D
Forever Families
My dear family and friends,
This week has truly flown! Just like all the other ones. :) And just like all the other p-days, I have no time. Because it flew away. ;)
So Monday we went to a kringloop (secondhand store) which are everywhere here, and they're awesome. You find the best things for only a few euros. Elder Harrop (one of the Haarlem elders) found a couple of ties with little klompen (the classic Dutch wooden shoe) charms on the end of them. :)
District meeting on Tuesday was great, for part of it we played a "Companionship Unity" game which was basically a "how well do you know your companion" game. We tied with the office elders, which we were super proud of, since they've been companions for twice as long. The winners were the Robisons (senior office couple), but they had the advantage of being married for 40 years. :)
This week we had a "Hands to Serve" week, which meant we tried to arrange a service project every day. On Wednesday we went to a Jeu de Boule club (Bocci for those who know that game, although they use the French term for it here) and helped them redo their playing tracks and clean up weeds and such. There was a nice drizzle all day long, but no one cared because it was a bunch of older people who were super nice and they loved us. :)
Our year mark was Thursday! It was a great day, other than the fact that it was pouring all morning and umbrella decided to break and attack me. My finger's healing nicely though, so it's all good. We're friends again. :)
On Friday among other things we had a great lesson with Julio! I can't remember if I've told you about him but he's basically agnostic. However, he's super open to what we're teaching and it's so awesome to see in contrast to all these people who aren't even open to listen to one sentence from us.
I'm way out of time but the rest of the week was great too! I love you all very much. This week I've especially been thinking a lot about my family and just how blessed I am to have them. Let me add my testimony, building an eternal family is the most worthy goal and the best endeavor to bring happiness that we could ever strive for in this life or the next. Give those you love a hug today and recommit yourself to showing a little more kindness, appreciation, forgiveness, service, humility, and every other good thing to your family members this week. Remember, love is spelled T-I-M-E and good memories last forever!
Have a great week!
-Zuster Jensen
This week has truly flown! Just like all the other ones. :) And just like all the other p-days, I have no time. Because it flew away. ;)
So Monday we went to a kringloop (secondhand store) which are everywhere here, and they're awesome. You find the best things for only a few euros. Elder Harrop (one of the Haarlem elders) found a couple of ties with little klompen (the classic Dutch wooden shoe) charms on the end of them. :)
District meeting on Tuesday was great, for part of it we played a "Companionship Unity" game which was basically a "how well do you know your companion" game. We tied with the office elders, which we were super proud of, since they've been companions for twice as long. The winners were the Robisons (senior office couple), but they had the advantage of being married for 40 years. :)
This week we had a "Hands to Serve" week, which meant we tried to arrange a service project every day. On Wednesday we went to a Jeu de Boule club (Bocci for those who know that game, although they use the French term for it here) and helped them redo their playing tracks and clean up weeds and such. There was a nice drizzle all day long, but no one cared because it was a bunch of older people who were super nice and they loved us. :)
Our year mark was Thursday! It was a great day, other than the fact that it was pouring all morning and umbrella decided to break and attack me. My finger's healing nicely though, so it's all good. We're friends again. :)
On Friday among other things we had a great lesson with Julio! I can't remember if I've told you about him but he's basically agnostic. However, he's super open to what we're teaching and it's so awesome to see in contrast to all these people who aren't even open to listen to one sentence from us.
I'm way out of time but the rest of the week was great too! I love you all very much. This week I've especially been thinking a lot about my family and just how blessed I am to have them. Let me add my testimony, building an eternal family is the most worthy goal and the best endeavor to bring happiness that we could ever strive for in this life or the next. Give those you love a hug today and recommit yourself to showing a little more kindness, appreciation, forgiveness, service, humility, and every other good thing to your family members this week. Remember, love is spelled T-I-M-E and good memories last forever!
Have a great week!
-Zuster Jensen
Monday, September 14, 2015
Six Months to Schiphol!
My dear family and friends,
Well, it has been a very full week that has gone by very fast and yet last Monday seems like forever ago. Welcome to mission time! Speaking of time, it's flying! Last Thursday was "six months to Schiphol"- in other works, six months until I'm sitting on an airplane on my way home. O.o And this Thursday marks one year since we entered the MTC. How does time sneak by like that? I even wear a watch every day to keep an eye on it! :D
So yes, that is craziness. But this week was great! For p-day last Monday we went to some old WWII (I think) bunkers by the beach in IJmuiden that you could just walk around and inside of. It was super fun! There isn't much left in them (besides graffiti and trash :P) but it was cool to see them and be in them.
Tuesday was a great district meeting as always. Wednesday we had service again! I love how many service opportunities we have in this area, it's one of my favorite things to do. That evening we also had an awkward extra 45 minutes or so, so we went to a nearby park to see if anyone was out (we didn't really want to knock doors since it was already getting dark). There weren't very many people, but there were these three teenage girls that we talked to. It was so interesting to see how, even from the first contact, people have different levels of faith and open minds to the gospel. One girl barely even looked up when we started talking. The other two talked with us, but one quickly lost interest after a couple of minutes. But the third girl asked great questions, and listened as we explained the whole Restoration! After a little while to the other two girls wanted to go, so we had to stop talking and we didn't have a chance to exchange contact information. However, she accepted a Book of Mormon and our invitation to pray about it. We left our number, so who knows what may happen in the future. :) In any case, it's always wonderful to have experiences like that, especially when it's the last few minutes of the day, you're not really expecting anyone of be interested, and there's only even a couple of people out to talk to. We a really blessed for doing what we are asked, despite doubts or concerns. :)
I'm starting to run out of time again! This seems to be a theme here. :P But a quick synopsis of other great things this week:
We saw Jennifer again this week! She's been a bit AWOL but we were able to have a lesson with her. She's going through pretty much everything you could in life right now, but she's still reading in the Book of Mormon every day! She has so much faith. :)
Cynthia (the Surinams lady) came to church and brought not only her son, but also a neighbor and their children! She's doing missionary work and she's not even a member yet. :) We love that lady - we call her our Surimama. :D
We met with a less-active on Sunday evening. We've had a lesson planned to talk about the plan of Salvation for a while now, but we haven't been able to teach it to her. Then last night when we went over she said, "Do you girls have a message for me? I've been feeling pretty down lately and I need something to uplift me." We were more than happy to discuss God's plan for us and how it's a plan of Happiness, and of course how we find that happiness through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Inspiration when planning is a beautiful thing to behold. :)
Well, that's about it for this week! May your week be crazy, fun, beautiful, wonderful, inspired, spiritual, family-filled, take your pick. It is what you make it! And as long as it's Christ-centered, it will always be good. :)
-Zuster Jensen
Well, it has been a very full week that has gone by very fast and yet last Monday seems like forever ago. Welcome to mission time! Speaking of time, it's flying! Last Thursday was "six months to Schiphol"- in other works, six months until I'm sitting on an airplane on my way home. O.o And this Thursday marks one year since we entered the MTC. How does time sneak by like that? I even wear a watch every day to keep an eye on it! :D
So yes, that is craziness. But this week was great! For p-day last Monday we went to some old WWII (I think) bunkers by the beach in IJmuiden that you could just walk around and inside of. It was super fun! There isn't much left in them (besides graffiti and trash :P) but it was cool to see them and be in them.
Tuesday was a great district meeting as always. Wednesday we had service again! I love how many service opportunities we have in this area, it's one of my favorite things to do. That evening we also had an awkward extra 45 minutes or so, so we went to a nearby park to see if anyone was out (we didn't really want to knock doors since it was already getting dark). There weren't very many people, but there were these three teenage girls that we talked to. It was so interesting to see how, even from the first contact, people have different levels of faith and open minds to the gospel. One girl barely even looked up when we started talking. The other two talked with us, but one quickly lost interest after a couple of minutes. But the third girl asked great questions, and listened as we explained the whole Restoration! After a little while to the other two girls wanted to go, so we had to stop talking and we didn't have a chance to exchange contact information. However, she accepted a Book of Mormon and our invitation to pray about it. We left our number, so who knows what may happen in the future. :) In any case, it's always wonderful to have experiences like that, especially when it's the last few minutes of the day, you're not really expecting anyone of be interested, and there's only even a couple of people out to talk to. We a really blessed for doing what we are asked, despite doubts or concerns. :)
I'm starting to run out of time again! This seems to be a theme here. :P But a quick synopsis of other great things this week:
We saw Jennifer again this week! She's been a bit AWOL but we were able to have a lesson with her. She's going through pretty much everything you could in life right now, but she's still reading in the Book of Mormon every day! She has so much faith. :)
Cynthia (the Surinams lady) came to church and brought not only her son, but also a neighbor and their children! She's doing missionary work and she's not even a member yet. :) We love that lady - we call her our Surimama. :D
We met with a less-active on Sunday evening. We've had a lesson planned to talk about the plan of Salvation for a while now, but we haven't been able to teach it to her. Then last night when we went over she said, "Do you girls have a message for me? I've been feeling pretty down lately and I need something to uplift me." We were more than happy to discuss God's plan for us and how it's a plan of Happiness, and of course how we find that happiness through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Inspiration when planning is a beautiful thing to behold. :)
Well, that's about it for this week! May your week be crazy, fun, beautiful, wonderful, inspired, spiritual, family-filled, take your pick. It is what you make it! And as long as it's Christ-centered, it will always be good. :)
-Zuster Jensen
Monday, September 7, 2015
The Bus of Life
My dear family and friends,
Yet another week is come and gone! Are we really in September now?? Kan niet. :)
We started this week with a great p-day in Haarlem, the most notable thing being that we went inside this giant church called St. Bavo or something like that. It has this big beautiful organ that is 30m tall (around 90 feet), which Handel and Mozart have both played on! I wanted to play it so bad. :)
The rest of the week has been riding on buses interspersed with awesome appointments, hence the title of the email! Our schedule just happened to work out this week that we were on buses travelling around Haarlem, above IJmuiden, and all over the place all week. But the awesome appointments include:
Yet another week is come and gone! Are we really in September now?? Kan niet. :)
We started this week with a great p-day in Haarlem, the most notable thing being that we went inside this giant church called St. Bavo or something like that. It has this big beautiful organ that is 30m tall (around 90 feet), which Handel and Mozart have both played on! I wanted to play it so bad. :)
The rest of the week has been riding on buses interspersed with awesome appointments, hence the title of the email! Our schedule just happened to work out this week that we were on buses travelling around Haarlem, above IJmuiden, and all over the place all week. But the awesome appointments include:
- Several wonderful dinner appointments! The members make such a big difference, and it's wonderful to get to know them and help them in whatever ways we can.
- Service again! We are really getting to know the people at this school for handicapped children well, and they appreciate what we do so much!
- Cynthia! She has been unable to meet with us for a couple of weeks, but we saw her again this week and she is still very positive that this is her church and she wants to be baptized next month! She calls us her children and feeds us delicious Surinams food every time we go over, and talks about how much she loves Jesus. We love Cynthia! :)
- Church! Which is great every week, but this week especially! A 25 year old woman from the Philippines who is living here for a year or so came to church (she's a member), and she brought two friends with her! They are super sweet and both accepted a Book of Mormon after we taught them about the Restoration during sunday school. It was wonderful!
Have a wonderful week!
-Zuster Jensen
Picture from the mission office
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