Loving the Little Things

My dear family and friends,

This week has been crazy! Good crazy, though. :)

It all started with Turkey Bowl last Monday. It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all. There was an especially entertaining moment when an elder ended up basically hugging a sister because they were on opposite teams running toward each other, and his only other option would have been to run her over because he had too much momentum. Everyone on the field just froze and then started laughing so hard. Haha, only as missionaries!

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Leeuwarden zusters. I was with Zuster Voss in Apeldoorn. We were accidentally twinners with our outfits, we taught a great Restoration lesson. and we biked all across town in freezing rain. It was great. :)

The next day we went on exchanges in Groningen. I went their and we helped a member paint their house all afternoon, which was fun. By Thursday though I was pretty ready to be back with my own companion, it was weird hardly seeing her for two days in a row! Thursday was one of those days that was filled with random missionary mishaps that you just have to laugh about later. This particular day they included a less-actives rabbit taking a dump on my skirt, getting fed a veritable mountain of stampot (basically mashed potatoes with a bunch of stuff in it) at dinner, and letting the chords of "Praise to the Man" fill the halls of the train station in Zwolle because we were waiting to meet back up with you companions after exchanges, the sister I was with happened to have a hymnbook on her, and that station has a public piano. It was pretty entertaining having people stop and compliment my playing but knowing that they had no idea what or who the song was about. :)

On Friday Zr Bush went to MLC (mission leader council) because she´s the sister trainer leader, so I went on splits with Zr Nyakoh in Gouda, which was way fun. Gouda makes the best giant fresh stroop waffels- so yum!

Saturday evening the senior couple in Deventer made us a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. And then Sunday was great as well, but I don´t have time to tell you about it so just know that it was great. :)

Well, I don´t have much time for a thought either but I would just like to encourage you all to notice the little things that make life so fun and great! One that I´ve been really appreciating this week is music. Of course life could be lived without the little things, but that´s boring. And of course we can´t live life with only little things, because that´s not fulfilling. But when we find a balance between the important and the little things, and we´re grateful for both, life is way fun. :)

Love you all!

-Zuster Jensen

Pics: "Don`t interrupt, I`m reading!" ;)

This describes her perfectly!

Pics: Zr Voss & I were accidentally twins on exchanges :D

Pic: A beautiful day riding into Deventer

Gratitude thoughts from the Netherlands!

My dear friends and family,

Well, this is one of those weeks where it seems forever long but still passes in the blink of an eye! I'm loving working with Zr Bush - why didn't you tell me I had a twin, Mom? We are so similar it's kind of scary. But mostly just fun. :)

The first part of this week included more planning (surprise, surprise). Putting together a zone training is more work than I thought! But the thing finally happened on Wednesday, and it went well so all is well. :)

We have a new investigator this week! Her name is Anastasia, she was actually taught by missionaries before but they haven't been in a while. She is originally from Ghana, and she's awesome. She responded very positively to us teaching the Restoration, and she showed us her favorite African gospel music. :)

Saturday evening the elders' investigator was baptized! She had been investigating for several months. It was a nice service. I love how, no matter what background they come from or what age they are or wat dan ook (whatever), newly baptized members always say they feel clean. They feel in a very real sense reborn. What a blessing to be able to feel that, and again each week as we take the sacrament! Het is mooi (it is beautiful). :)

Well I'm running out of time, as usual - we've got to catch a train soon to go play some good old American football. Turkey Bowl for the win! Hopefully I'll catch the ball at least once. We'll see. :) In any case, it is Thanksgiving this week and I would be remiss if I didn't share a thought about gratitude. I can't remember what I shared in my email last year at Thanksgiving time, so sorry if it's a repeat. :)

Take a moment to think about what you're grateful for. There are a lot of things! Now think about what you are most grateful for. If you're like me and all the people I've talked to about this, you probably said something like your family, your testimony, your Savior, or something like that. Something which is eternal and truly a treasure for you. In 3 Nephi 13:20-21 we read the words of Christ when He said: "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

As we treasure these wonderful, eternal things our heart comes closer to our Heavenly Father, for they come from Him. And it's always so much nicer to live when we live with hearts close to Him! Take a look at your priorities this week, make sure they're properly sorted, and express gratitude for all that Heavenly Father gives us. It truly is everything.

Love you all!

-Zuster Jensen

P.S. for more thoughts on gratitude, see Mosiah 2. It's one of my favorite chapters in the whole Book of Mormon. :)

Pics: Zr Bush & I at zone training

Peace

My dear family and friends,

Well, this week could pretty much be described in one word: Planning!! Zr Bush is the Sister Trainer Leader for this zone and we have a zone training on Wednesday, so we spent a lot of this week planning for that. I'm excited, it should be good! It's been being able to observe the leadership process in the mission at the zone/district level this week, which I haven't been a part of before. It's awesome to see these missionaries really stepping up to the responsibilities asked of them and prayerfully considering the needs of the missionaries and area under their leadership.

But, rewind for a moment: It was a great last few days with Zr Harris! I was sad to see her go so soon, but we saw some great things and then transfers went very smoothly, which is always a blessing! We exchanged in Utrecht and we had to wait a while for Zr Bush to get up here with a group coming from Roosendaal, so we were able to go out during our lunch our and see a bit of the city, including a beautiful church from the outside. :)

The rest of the week was pretty much just planning as I said, but also I am loving working with Zr Bush! She and I are extremely similar in a lot of ways, which is always fun with a companion. She is on her second to last transfer, it's crazy that we're both so close to home! But we don't quite have a foot in the grave, we've still got time. :)

In other news, we heard about what happened in Paris. Everyone here is fine and we weren't affected, but it is very saddening and can be frightening to hear. However, we can take comfort in knowing that there will always be safety in following Christ. I love the account in Mathew 14, where the disciples are in a boat and Christ walks to them on water:

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

I love that it describes how the moment at which Peter doubted was the moment when we saw the circumstances around him and began to fear. However, Christ would never have let him drown - even if there was a hurricane around him, Peter would have been safe. So it is with us. If we trust in Him and keep His commandments, we need never fear; and we can trust that in the end, Christ will calm the storm and there will be neverending peace. Pray to God, and you can feel such peace in your heart every time you open your heart to receive it. I love you all!

-Zr Jensen

Pics: Transfer day in Utrecht :)

The Craziness Continues

My dear family and friends,

Before I forget, a very merry belated birthday wish to my dear zusje Kellie, and another early one to my dear moeder! I hope that they were/will be great days!

In other news, the real transfer call came last night! Because it got switched in the middle of the transfer we were pretty sure we would both be staying, but not so! After only 2 weeks here Zr Harris will be heading up to Groningen, and I will be staying here in Apeldoorn with Zr Bush, who has been here 1 transfer more than I have and seems very sweet and fun. Zr Harris and I were very excited with the possibility of serving another full transfer together, but even though we are not it was great to serve with her again for another couple of weeks and I know she will do great things in the land northward. :)

And now, for the weekly report! This week started out with a crazy thick fog! I can´t help but laugh to myself a little bit every time I read the part in the white handbook that talks about not biking in the dark or in bad weather. When you are a missionary in Nederland, and it´s fall/winter time, then that includes pretty much every day. But, bikes are are only mode of transportation, so biking in the dark, rain, fog, you name it is what we do. Call it an occupational hazard. :)

Throughout this whole week we saw miracles with people walking right into or out of their houses as we came up or picking up the phone when they usually don´t, so we have several appointments with new people that we are looking forward to! We were even able to have a lesson with a man on his door who was willing to stand there and talk to us. It was awesome. :)

I don´t have a ton of time (what else is new?) but this week we discovered a fireside on Zr Harris' USB by John Bytheway called "No-Brainers: 5 Hard Decisions that the Gospel Makes Easy" or something like that. It´s so good! If you can find it, listen to it! But even if you can´t, I´d like to add my witness to is that living the gospel is so worth it. You can choose what to do, but you can´t choose the consequences - and we are told exactly what choices will bring the consequences we want. If we open our eyes to an eternal perspective and our hearts to the Spirit of God, every choice becomes easier and every consequence becomes sweeter. :)
Make good choices! ;)

-Zr Jensen

P.S. If you haven´t heard, we have a new mission office! So if you ever send anything here please send it to the following address:
Schuttersveld 2
2316 ZA Leiden
The Netherlands

A Leave-devolle Rain :D

My dear family and friends,

First, let me apologize that I haven't replied to many letters this week - it sounds like it was a crazy week for the Jensens, and this Jensen is no exception!

So I don't have time to tell the whole story and it's not really my story to tell anyway, so suffice it to say that some craziness went down last Sunday where Zr Ramirez was mildly threatened by someone. We were both fine, but due to the circumstances President decided to pull her out of Apeldoorn just in case something not good should happen in the future. We got the news on Tuesday night, and the switch happened on Thursday. And guess who my new companion is? Zr Harris, who I worked with 4 transfers ago in Assen! She had been in a threesome in Amsterdam, and she got transferred here while Zr Ramirez joined the threesome in Amsterdam. Even though I was very sad to see Zr Ramirez go after only 4 short weeks and it is a frustrating situation, it is very fun to be working with Zr Harris again.

On Wednesday, the last day I was with Zr Ramirez, we had to go to Den Haag so she could do some stuff for her Argentinian ID card or something like that. And we encountered every possible problem you could have with the train system! It turned what should have been a 4 ish hour trip into like 7 hours. Craziness. However, the emergency transfer the next day went smoothly so all was well. :)

Friday craziness started off not so happy, since someone stole my helmet. Who steals a helmet in a land where you get laughed at for wearing helmets?? :P But, positivity will always come off conqueror! That afternoon I could hardly be thinking about my troubles because Zr Harris and I made goals and plans for the next few weeks, and we are so pumped about really working hard and seeing miracles here in Apeldoorn. President shared with her that when he and the APs were praying and talking about who would come here to replace Zr Ramirez, that had a very strong feeling that it should be Zr Harris. So we don't what's going to happen or why we need to be companions again, but we know there's a work here for us to do, and it's going to be something amazing, I guess! :)

There were other great things to tell you about, but I definitely do not have any more time. :( 

However, I would love to share with you a thought I had about Halloween. :) The don't celebrate it much here, but I was pondering about how kids on the other side of the world were excitedly going langs de deur (knocking on doors) and receiving fun things in return. No kid knows what kind of candy or other treat will be given them, but they know it will be good. And I realized that this is like the gospel! :) From 3 Nephi 27:28-29 and similar scriptures we learn that if we knock, Heavenly Father will always open unto us. If we kneel in sincere prayer and ask for our righteous desires, we will be answered. Just like a kid on Halloween, we don't know what kind of answer we will get; but we know that it will be sweet and good, and because it comes from a loving Father in Heaven it will be exactly what we need. :)

I love you all!

-Zr Jensen

P.S. the title of this email is a play on words, because "liefdevolle" in Dutch means filled with love, but it sounds like "leave-full" and both the leaves from the trees and the love from Heaven have been raining down like crazy this week, amidst all the other craziness. :)