The Penultimate Preparation Day

Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,

As my very alliterate title would suggest, this is indeed my second to last p-day on the mission! It is crazy how fast time seems to have flown by... but I'll save most of those sorts of thoughts for next week. The end is in sight but not here yet!

Well it's been yet another great week! I guess my life is just great, since I seem to have so many of those. :) We had a wonderful district meeting on Tuesday, and then Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Amsterdam zusters, although it was a bit delayed since the office closed an apartment in Hoorn and thus had extra furniture, so we had to be at our apartment to receive that. I was working with Zr Ramirez that day, and it was a pretty chill day with just some look-ups and a dinner appointment, but it is so nice to work again with past companions (particularly ones you haven't worked with in several transfers) and see each other's progress and all. I really don't feel like I'm an amazing missionary, but I can tell I've learned a ton so that's always nice to see. :)

Thursday was also good, although the weather was super bipolar! It's been pretty sunny this week which is wonderful, but Thursday the sun was intermixed with minutes where clouds would suddenly come in, dump, and then move on. It was weird. But! We had an awesome experience with an investigator that day. She is a mom with several busy kids, and so our lesson was pretty scattered. However, toward the end we were running out of time so Zr Young just pulled out her Book of Mormon and was flipping through it to find any scripture to share with the investigator to leave with her. She ended up sharing a few verses out of Ether 4, which she admitted to me later she had hardly any idea what they even were, she just picked it randomly. However, they really touched the investigator, who talked about how she needed that message, how she wanted to be better about reading in the scriptures, and just in general she felt like those verses were for her! Just another little reminder that the Spirit is guiding even our shots in the dark. :)

The rest of the week was similarly great, but I'm running out of time to tell you about it. :P Plus for p-day today we were very Dutch/European - we spent the whole day playing football (read:soccer) with several elders and a couple of members, and it was way fun but everything is sore and tired, haha. But as a thought to leave you with, this week we taught the lesson in Relief Society again, this time on the talk from the most recent general conference by Robert D. Hales, called "Meeting the Challenges of Today's World." It's an awesome talk and I invite you all to reread it. I love in particular what He says about the guidance we can receive from the scriptures and the Spirit: "One of the purposes of the scriptures is to show us how righteous people respond to temptation and evil. In short, they avoid it! Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife. Lehi took his family and left Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph fled into Egypt to escape Herod’s wicked plot. In every instance, Heavenly Father warned these believers. Similarly, He will help us know whether to fight, flee, or go with the flow of our unfolding circumstances. He will speak to us through prayer, and when we pray, we will have the Holy Ghost, who will guide us. We have the scriptures, the teachings of living prophets, patriarchal blessings, the counsel of inspired parents, priesthood and auxiliary leaders, and, above all, the still, small voice of the Spirit.

The Lord will always keep His promise: “I will lead you along.” The only question is, will we let ourselves be led? Will we hear His voice and the voice of His servants?

I testify that if you are there for the Lord, He will be there for you. If you love Him and keep His commandments, you will have His Spirit to be with you and guide you. “Put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good. … By this shall you know, all things … pertaining unto things of righteousness.”" What awesome advice! It reminds me of one of my absolute favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2:41. Read and ponder on that principle. I testify it is true!

-Zuster Jensen

Trying on glasses-reminds me of Dad`s mission pictures ;)

Conference, Church and Choices

Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,

It has been a great week! The weather has been colder again, the pond in front of our house even froze over. Maar 't geeft niet, we stayed busy! We had exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday I worked with Zr Twiggs, which was fun being back with her for a day. We took a long bus ride out to Urk to try and contact a mormon.org referral there. They weren't home, but it was still a great afternoon. That evening we had dinner with the de Bruins, who are amazing and have us over all the time so we offered to make them dinner for a change. We made them Hawaiian haystacks, it actually turned out really good, even though none of really know a recipe and were just improvising. :) On Wednesday I worked with Zuster Mashburn and we had an afternoon full of look ups and awkward situations. You would be amazed by how many people have moved before you can look them up again, who don't answer their door even when you're 100% sure they're home and 90% sure they saw you on their doorstep, or who are completely willing to let you in when you only have 2 minutes left before you have to go and thus don't have time to go in, but they won't take no for an answer. All the awkward. :P But they were a good couple of days and we saw some good progress with our people. :)

On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Amsterdam - my last one! 0.o It felt a little bit like the Zuster Jensen show- Zr Young and I were asked to do a 5 minute presentation on healthy breakfasts, I did a musical number, I got sung to during lunch since I had a birthday, and I gave my "dying testimony," which is the opportunity to bear your testimony during the last zone conference you have before you go home. Haha they actually forgot to announce me in the list of people giving their dying testimonies, it's nice to know they truly care about me after one and a half years of service... just kidding, I know they love me. It was pretty funny, though. :)

The rest of the week we had some good appointments and saw some great people. On Sunday a less active came to church and stayed for the whole time, took the Sacrament for the first time in months, and had a wonderful interview with the branch president to discuss future plans and such. She was very nervous to come and especially to talk with the branch president, but it was beautiful to see how the Spirit comforted her and brought her joy from being in the church, and especially to see the subtle glow about her from the Sacrament and the spiritual recharge she got there. I testify that church is a necessary and wonderful thing! We may not notice the change as much when we are faithfully attending each week and striving to live worthily throughout the week, but we need it nonetheless. I have a very firm belief in the power of the little things - church, prayer, and scripture study to name a few - to help us stay true to the good choices we have made. Faith is truly a choice, or perhaps more accurately a continuing series of little choices with a clear purpose and direction - returning to our Father in Heaven, having prepared ourselves to be in His presence. Remember, “If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.” Amen!

-Zuster Jensen

Pics: an awesome front porch!

Voor Jezus

Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,

Thanks again for the birthday wishes! I was able to read the rest of them today. I did indeed have a wonderful birthday, we went bowling with some members and I had two different cakes made for me. :) One of them they even put trick candles on the cake, which is the first time I've seen those in real life! 21 candles is already a lot to stick on a pastry, but add to that the fact that they don't like to be blown out... let's just say 10 minutes after I first tried to blow one out I was very out of breath but feeling quite triumphant. :)

Tuesday was also a great day, the elders who made lunch after district meeting also made me a cake which was very sweet of them. :) President also joined us for district meeting that day, which is always awesome because he is a great man. Wednesday we had exchanges with the zusters in Alkmaar, it was kind of a crazy day but all is well that ends well!

On Friday we had a Valentine's Day activity in the branch, it was a cake baking competition! Everyone could bring a cake and then everyone would vote on the best one. We had this great idea to decorate ours to look like a Book of Mormon. However, there were many misadventures involved; first, the box of cake mix called for slagroom (I think that's the equivalent of heavy cream) which we didn't have, so we ended up substituting a bit of coffie milk that we had mixed with regular milk. Then, it was the sort of cake where you have marbled vanilla and choclate, but it really didn't want to marble... it just kind of looked like chocolate with a slight vanilla streak. But it was just getting covered with frosting anyway, so we were still hopeful! However, something went wrong with the frosting we made and it refused to thicken up no matter how much powdered sugar we put in it, so it was way to runny. Then we put the blue food coloring in, and of course it's the kind of food coloring that doesn't get any darker than baby blue no matter how much of the stuff you stir in there. Hardly Book of Mormon blue worthy. :P So, we changed our plans last minute and used the yellow fondant we had bought (to write out "Het Boek van Mormon") and instead made a sun and wrote "Voor Jezus!" ("for Jesus!"), with reference to the Dutch version of the Sunbeam primary song, in which the chorus says "Voor Jezus, voor Jezus!" in the part where in English we sing "A sunbeam, a sunbeam!" It was pretty cheesy, but we had a cake. :) However, we then had to transport it to the church, which we did by sticking it in a bag and tying it to the back of my bike and praying it would survive (literally, I prayed for it). It made it pretty ok, but the already too-thin frosting kind of got all over the place and the extra food coloring we had dumped into it kind of stained the yellow fondant a bit green. So in the end, we had the most ghetto missionary cake ever, but it provided many, many laughs for the evening. :)

As a quick thought to leave with you, even though the cake made us laugh, I know that it is a very noble and wonderful cause to be "for Jesus." Wearing His name upon our hearts and striving always to do as He would do, we come closer to Him and show our devotion to Him - which is only right, because He has always been and always will be there for us. He gave His life for us, and not only in the moments He was on the cross - He committed His life to the service of His Father and of us even from the beginning. I know that He had done everything for us. Let us do everything we can for Him!

-Zuster Jensen

Pics: Voor Jezus cake :D

Apparently this was not quite what they were hoping for when they started the project.  Hopefully it tasted good!

Is het jaar al voorbij??? (The year is over already???)

Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! I'm afraid I don't have time to reply to each of you individually but I love you all and appreciate each one!

I am super out of time, but here's a quick summary of the week:

• I love the members here already, every place has it's challenges but they are so good to us and are just good people. :)
• A less-active we visited asked if I was half some darker race. I was so surprised by the question I couldn't answer for a second! Haha I think it's just because I was sitting in a shadow or something, because there's no way anyone could mistake me for anything except white. :P
• We visited a different less-active who was in the hospital, and I had yet another confirmation that nursing is the right track for me, because I was irrationally happy just by being in the hospital. I think my companion worries about my sanity now. [I had to laugh about this! I feel the same way about hospitals--love being there. We must be the same kind of crazy! -Tricia]
• On Friday we had MLC (mission leader council)! It's always a great day and I am just reminded every time of how inspired this work is and how wonderful our leaders are.

It's always funny having a birthday pretty soon after New Year's, since I just recently did that whole reflecting-on-the-past-year-and-how-the-next-one-will-be sort of thing. However, I've still taken some time for that on my birthday and it's just amazing to stop and think about how good the Lord is! One year ago I was still in my first city, feeling like I'd already learned so much but still had so far to go. Now one year later I am in my last city, feeling like I've learned so much but I still have so far to go! :D Haha some things never change. ;) In all seriousness though, I can see that I have changed and progressed, and I am so grateful for that. I know that God works wonders in our lives, as long as we're willing to give it to Him so He has something to work with. It is my prayer that we will all learn to do this, and discover the joy that comes from it!

Love you all!!!
-Zuster Jensen

Welkom in Lelystad

Mijn geliefde familie en vrienden,

Well, right after I sent that letter complaining about the cold snap last week it turned out to be a beautiful, warm-ish day on Monday! Haha I should complain more often. ;)

Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly packing, cleaning up the apartment to be closed, and visiting a bunch of investigators and members in Apeldoorn. It was a great last couple of days, and then transfer day arrived! All things considered, it went relatively smoothly and I made it to Lelystad in one piece. While we were in Leiden we also had to run by the office to pick something up, and it was so crazy seeing all the little greenies with so much time still, and also all the dying missionaries and thinking - I'm next! So crazy!

Also, I love Zr Young! She is super fun and we work really well together already. :)

The rest of the week has been meeting the people here in Lelystad as well as planning for the transfer with the Zone and District Leaders. I love Lelystad already! It is a tiny little city, but there are some great people here and I think I'm really going to love my last few weeks. Plus, the I'm already the branch members' favorite because no one plays the piano here, so they depend on the missionaries to play during church and Zr Young doesn't play. The first question everyone I meet asks me is, "speel je piano?" (do you play the piano?) and then they get so excited when I say yes. :) So all you future missionaries out there, don't stop practicing because you will make a lot of people very happy when you get to the field! :)

Well, I'll step off my soapbox now. :) That's about all I have to report though, I'm sure I'll have more news next week when I've met more people. As a thought to leave with you, please remember just how good our Heavenly Father is. We can't see the whole plan, and that's the way it should be - but if we just keep on keeping on, doing our best to obey his commandments and revelations and to listen to His Spirit, we can look back sooner or later and just be filled with gratitude at how it all worked out. There are many things about my mission that I wonder why it was the way it was, but there are also many instances, particularly with transfers and companions that are already a major testimony to me of just how perfectly our Heavenly Father knows and loves us. I'm sure my life won't be changing around quite so constantly after my mission, but I know the Hand of the Lord will be directing it just as much. Please trust in the Lord, and allow yourself to feel that inner, unbreakable peace that comes from that trust and faith. It's an amazing and vital blessing in our world today.

Love you all!
-Zr Jensen

Pic: We speak whale below sea level. :)

From a Dutch friend here in Oregon:  Lelystad was built on land that was reclaimed from the ocean! It is named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the causeway allowed the water to be pumped out, thus allowing the city to be built effectively on the seafloor.  The town is 3 meters below sea level!