Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,
It has been a wonderful week! On top of the magical feeling of the Christmas season, fun things have gone down in the the Netherlands- not the least of which is transfer calls! The craziness continues here in Apeldoorn - Zr Bush will be leaving after only 5 weeks ( it was a shortened transfer) to Zoetermeer, and I will be staying here in Apeldoorn! I will be getting Zr Twiggs, a great zuster who was in my MTC district. And, the mission is trying out something new- we will be co-sister training leaders! So that will be fun! It is certainly crazy though - in the space of 12 weeks, I will have had 4 different companions in one city! :P I will be sad to see Zr Bush go, we got along super well, but I'm sure this next transfer with Zr Twiggs will be just as wonderful. :)
First, last Monday we had a great p-day hanging out in Deventer with the senior couple there, Elder and Zuster Hill. They're a really sweet couple from Idaho. We also wandered around Deventer a bit and we found this shop filled with tons of old books! And I mean filled! I got so excited, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. :)
Tuesday we had dinner with a great family in the ward and stayed for Family Home Evening with them afterward, where we taught the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. They have 4 young kids so we made a game out of it, and it was way fun. I love teaching kids!
After that we travelled to Dordrecht where we slept over, because they next day was Zone Conference! Best days of the transfer, echt waar. (really) We learned a lot of great things about how to teach more personally and powerfully, as well as about the Christmas website of the church. I love how simply the website is layed out, all focused on Jesus Christ as our Savior and why He is so incredibly important, necessary to our lives. Take a look and share it with friends, it's awesome!
On Friday we had a zone service project all day at the Voedselbank (food bank) in Zwolle. It was way fun! We were sorting donations of food and other random items to be put into Christmas packages for needy families. Of course the greatest service we can do is bring the gospel to others, but just some good old fashioned work helping someone else makes for a very happy Zuster Jensen. :)
On Saturday and Sunday we pretty much lived at the church, doing final practices and then performances for the stake Christmas concert (we were singing in the choir). Familie Jones also came up from Arnhem on the Saturday and took us out to dinner with some other missionaries who had served there, it was way fun! They're a top notch family!
The Christmas concert was great! It was completely focused on Christ (of course), but included songs about His life beyond Bethlehem as well as the relationship between Joseph and Mary and what they probably went through in this most incredible of events. It caused me to ponder about just how much we need each other, and about how much help we can receive from heaven as well, in everything we are asked to do or overcome in this life. We need to trust and support each other. Don't be afraid to ask for our receive help, or to give it in return, for we all need it! I love, love, love this quote from Thomas S. Monson: "I leave with you my witness and my testimony that God our Eternal Father lives and loves us. He is indeed our Father, and He is personal and real. May we realizeand understand how close to us He is willing to come, how far He is willing to go to help us, how much He loves us, and how much He does and is willing to do for us." I know that that is true, and I become more and more aware that that promise of help is realized through other people. So let others serve you, because you never know who is the answer to your prayer. And never cease to serve others, because you just might be the answer to theirs!
Love you all!
-Zr Jensen
No comments:
Post a Comment