JULY 31, 2017

"I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE I WAS GOING, THEREFORE, I MADE IT"  HNA JENSEN

Hello! 

​This week went by so fast and was so crazy that I really can’t remember a lot of it. It was filled with following the spirit and seeing crazy milagros. 

ALICIA AND FREDI ARE ENGAGED! Alicia is the super cool dancer from New York that we've been teaching for a few weeks. We love her so much. She is seriously the coolest person ever. She is so spiritual and asks the coolest questions and has taught me so much. I freaked out when they told me at church because I was on an exchange when they told Sister Jensen. They seriously make me so happy. I love them both so much guys..ahhh!!!  We are so excited for their sealing in a year but especially for her baptism on the 26th! WOOO! 

Also, we had another cool experience this week. We got a media referral in the morning and it was for a man named Leo. There wasn't, however, any address on the referral just a phone number. So, we call the phone number and it turns out to be the wrong number. So, we are thinking that it isn't possible for us to contact him. As we continue the day, we go to contact another media referral. We parked down the street from his house a little bit and decided to knock the doors leading up to his house. Well, the first door we knock on a man comes outside and begins to talk with us. He was telling us how him and his wife want to start going to church, but they disagree on the church to go to. She wants to Christ Fellowship and he wants to go to the Mormon Church. We were baffled. We asked him his name and he told us Leo. We then asked if he had chatted with missionaries online earlier that day. He told us no, but that he had met with missionaries before in the past. We were able to share a prayer with him and give him a Book of Mormon and the whole situation was just amazing. I don't know if it was the same Leo that we had received a referral for earlier that day, but I do know that God sent us that referral because He knew that we would need to find Leo that day. He just was letting us know beforehand. 

I also went on an exchange with Sister Muniz this week and she is such an awesome missionary. She is actually from Brazil and taught me all about it and it was so cool! She is serving in a Portuguese ward so I kept trying to figure out what they were saying since Portuguese is close to Spanish but failed pretty hard. It was super fun though! 

All of our investigators keep finding Anti- Mormon stuff online and we've had to battle it pretty hard this transfer but my testimony has never been stronger. I also hate google and smart phones... I don't think I’ll ever go back! 

Also, ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING FOR STAKE CONFERENCE. Buy your plane tickets people. I’m probably going to camp out. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH! Thank you for being so awesome and supportive! 

 Have an awesome week! And if you ever get bored or something or just feel like writing a sister missionary.... my address is

 2301 s Congress Ave #113 

Boynton Beach, Fl 33426

I love you and I pray for you every day! Keep being awesome!

JULY 24, 2017

CALL US "JENFIERI"!

HELLO!! 'twas another awesome week here in Boynton Beach. I am loving every single minute of my time in this area. We have nicknamed it "the Miracle Factory". 

This week felt like 2 seconds and 5 years all in one, I wish I could explain it better but really it makes no sense. I’m sure I’ve said this before but this week I felt like such and instrument in the lords hands. It’s the most humbling yet fulfilling feeling ever. 

This week one miracle that we saw was from fasting. We were fasting with our investigator, Deitra, on the day of her baptism. Well, her baptism was scheduled for 11am and so we went over to the chapel around 9:30 to fill the font. We had called Deitra earlier that morning to see if there was anything we could do to help, but she said no. Well, as we were filling the font, she called and said that her husband had to go to work and so she didn't want to get baptized without him there. We told her we could move the baptismal service to 7pm and she was a little hesitant. So, we went to her house and talked to her. When we got there she was on the phone with a family member for about 20 minutes and he was telling her to look up all these scriptures to prove us wrong. It was crazy. She told us that she had been feeling peace this morning and all, but that she was now unsure because she had all these different opinions being thrown at her by her family. We knew that she was ready. We have known that for a while as we have heard her bear her testimony to her family and friends. We prayed with her and talked to her and told her to pray about her baptism and to pay attention to how she felt in her heart. We left and told her that we would call at 4pm. So, we went out and we kept working. We knocked and taught some other investigators and we called her at 4pm. She said her husband still wasn't home, but that she would let us know. So we kept working and planning that the baptism was going to happen at 7pm. We ran home really quick to change before the baptism and to break our fast still not entirely sure what was happening. Well, in the car, we prayed to break our fast and we prayed that Deitra would be baptized tonight at 7pm and that her husband would be home in time. As soon as we ended the prayer, the phone rang and it was Deitra. She happily told us that she was ready and that her husband was home and that she would be at the church at 6:30. It was the happiest moment of my life and the baptismal service was so spiritually-packed. It was truly amazing!

We also just got off the phone with our investigator Alicia's boyfriend Fredi that told us that she wants to move her baptismal date up so that Fredi's Dad can baptize her. I will try to explain more about her next week! She is amazing!!!! and so is Fredi! 

We are teaching so many amazing people right now. I swear at least 7 times a day Sister Jensen and I just turn to each other and have a mini freak out about how awesome life is and how the lord is blessing us so much and really we have no idea why! 

This week was super full and super awesome, so much more happened but I really just can’t write it all down! I am so grateful for this adventure and all the lessons I can learn! 

I love you guys so much!!! Thank you for your support and love! I pray for you every day! Have a great week! 

JULY 17, 2017

PURE JOY HERE IN BOYNTON BEACH!

HEEELLLLOOOO,

I seriously love this area and I LOVE Sister Jensen. She is such a hardworking, eager, and dedicated missionary. We have already seen so many miracles. This area is completely different than Naples but I love it just the same. We are so excited to go out and just get to work every single day. I feel like this is kinda a turning point in my mission. I know what I'm doing, I know what works/doesn't work, and I'm not scared to try new thing, speak up, and I'm excited to become the missionary that the LORD wants me to be. I'm willing and now I am able. 

Boynton Beach is such an insanely diverse area. All my last areas were practically all Spanish but in this area, there are seriously people from all over living on the same exact street. It’s SO fun. It reminds me a lot of my first area of Miami Lakes just with even more diversity. I LOVE it. 

Sister Jensen has been out on her mission for two more transfers than me. Before the mission she danced at the University of Utah. She reminds me a lot of one of my very best friends that I grew up with and so we just got along perfectly as soon as we got together. Seriously such an inspired companionship. SO EXCITED!! She is teaching me everything about being an STL and its been super good thus far. I did a few of my *STL duties* (Nacho Libre Voice) this past week and they went fine! 

We also Baptized two 9-year-old boys this past Saturday. Their family was really less active and the Elders found the Dad just walking outside on his way home from work. The Brunson Family.  They passed them over to the Sisters in this area and they taught them everything and now they are baptized! I seriously just kinda walked into this one but now we are starting "Project Brunson". The Brunson family has such an interesting story and family dynamic. The Grandparents live there with all their grandchildren and have raised them as their own. They are honestly an inspiration. They stopped going to church about a year ago but with our "project Brunson" we are so excited to bring them back. They are such a cool family! My favorite quote this week comes from Sister Brunson.." We can’t have without Heavenly Father" or "If you 'aight earned it God 'aight gonna let you keep it"... TRUTH. 

We are teaching so many cool people this week! Another one of our investigators Deitra is getting baptized this coming weekend! She is seriously the coolest person ever! I love her so much. She is just nice to EVERYONE. I will write more about her in the next email hopefully. We saw another crazy cool miracle with a girl named Alicia. She just kinda "showed up" to church with her member boyfriend. Alicia is this young woman from NY who has obviously seen a lot of success in her life. She is a financial adviser and just has a very "professional" personality. The most miraculous part of it was that seriously the entire Sunday service was about charitable giving, tithing, and really all about money (which typically isn't something we talk too much about as a church) . But she LOVED it. She felt the spirit so strong. Everyone was just kinda "speaking her language". It just goes to show how much God cares about every single one of his children. 

I just wish you could all see the "face of joy" that Deitra, The Brunson boys, and Alicia had on Sunday. And honestly how excited and happy Sister Jensen and I were. It was "magic". 

Earlier this week we were knocking for our hour and we finished with really no success at all and then as we were walking back to the car this man walked out of his house to go check his mail, so of course we went and talked to him. Turns out his wife who passed away two years ago was a devote member of the church. We went back and taught him yesterday and had such an awesome lesson with him. I usually hate lessons that last longer than an hour because I just get "burned out" especially since yesterday we taught him outside standing up but the lesson lasted about 2 hours and it was so awesome. He is just the sweetest funniest man from the Bahamas. He has the coolest accent.

This week was packed with hard work and miracles. I LOVED every single second. I am also extremely exhausted but that's okay! I am so excited for this area and for this next transfer. 

You guys are all so awesome! Thank you for your prayers and support. I LOVE YOU!!!! I pray for you every single day. Have a great week! 

JULY 11, 2017

BOYNTON BEACH!

FRIENDS!! FAM!!! I am getting transfer! I seriously can’t believe that my time with Sister Isham is over...She is so awesome I am still amazed at how much I learned from the opportunity I had to train her. It was a truly inspired companionship. She is going to do awesome thing here in the FFLM! Watch out!!! 

So, I am transferring to an area called Boynton Beach. Its back over on the east coast of Florida. I will actually be serving as an STL, or Sister Training Leader, and be with Sister Larsen. I have no idea who she is but I’ve heard great things! It will be my first english area on my mission! Basically, what an STL does is going on exchanges with sisters in the mission and helps them out and goes to mission leadership meetings... I honestly really have no idea what they actually do but hey! I’ll find out! It’s going to different but I’m ready for the challenge :) 

This week felt super long just because it was packed full of so many things! The 4th of July was so fun!!! We had to come in at 7:00 which was a bit of a bummer but the Sisters in my house are such a party! We also got to go to a member in the English ward and have hamburgers and hotdogs (which are honestly my favorite thing now) IT WAS SO AWESOME. We also biked all day so we could just talk to everyone on the street. I love biking so much. 

Oh! We got to meet the new President, Pres Garns. It was super cool. He is a really interesting man. He’s SUPER different than President Richardson but I still really like him! He lived in California his whole life and loves the ocean. He was also a marine so he’s kinda strict but also he really loves art and owns a photography business... It’s a really cool mix! He’s already made a few changes here in the FFLM so I’m really excited that now I get to work closer with him as STL and see all these changes happen! 

The area here in Bahia Norte is going so well, I am really sad to leave! We saw a really cool miracle this week. Apparently, there has been a 13 year old girl attending our ward with one of her member friends for the past 3 weeks and she even went to girls camp! We had no idea at all. On Monday our bishop called us and said "I have someone for you to baptize!" Of course, we went right over there and it turns out her and her family took the lessons in North Carolina but the sisters up there just kinda stopped coming around one day, but Joselyn never forgot how she felt when they were there. We are now teaching her everything over again and she is so awesome! She always has so many questions and is so eager to learn. She is going to get baptized the week after I leave.... I am pretty sad I’ll miss it but I know she’s in good hands! 

That’s really all for this week! I love you all so very much! Thank you for being so awesome!!! I pray for you all the time! Have a great week!!! 

 This is Hna Yalcin. We went over to her house last night for FHE. She is such an awesome woman! My first week in this area her Son passed away and ever since then we have been visiting her and doing FHE at her house everyone month. She is seriously one of my biggest role models

 This is Joselyn (right) and her friend! (and is also the worst picture of me ever) but i just love these girls SO much. and i am SO excited for Joselyn to get baptized on the 21st

 This morning we went on a 12 mile bike ride through a swamp. Legit SWAMP. I seriously felt like I was no longer the top of the food chain. We had to walk our bikes through the marsh for about 3 miles. It was crazy! So many alligators! SO FUN. But ill never do it again--for sure...

 THE 4th!!!! It was a party! Im going to miss living in this house!

JULY 03, 2017

"I'D PAY 8 COWS FOR YOU HERMANA STAFFIERI" - HNA ISHAM

HELLLLOOOOOOO!!!

This week was really awesome!!! I discovered a smile wrinkle that I have developed these past 9 months and I am absolutely not complaining life is seriously so awesome! 

This week President Garns officially took over. I really don't know much about him except that he was an area 70 or something like that and from California (so probably pretty cool?). He is doing a mission tour this week and we will get to meet him on Wednesday! I am actually really excited! The mission has been on fire the past week and it’s been so awesome, the whole "vibe" of the mission is alive and I’ve been loving it so much! Some great things are about to happen!

We met so many cool new investigators this week and actually had a lot of people that came to church, one family even just kinda "showed up"-- it was so awesome! We met this other super humble family from Guatemala this past week. They live in this really run down old trailer but are the sweetest kindest most warmhearted people I've ever met. The mothers name is Estela and she left Guatemala completely solo about 5 years ago to find work for her family, he daughter followed her 3 years later and has the cutest little baby girl. When we first met them at our first lesson the spirit was so strong. Hna. Isham and I taught so well together and everything just went perfect. Estela came to church this past week with her granddaughter and LOVED it. We went over to teach them last night and had another great lesson. They are having difficulty committing to a baptismal date because they really just want to KNOW and be really ready. We are so excited to continue to work with them!

EDGAR!!! He is seriously my best friend haha I know I say that about a lot of people but Edgar is just hilarious and so fun to teach! We are always just so "straight up" with him and its so refreshing. He told us that he was going to be at church on time at 9:00 on Sunday but 9:00 comes around and he is no where to be found, we called him and he said that he was going to be a little bit late....3rd hour of church rolls around and in walks Edgar who pulls up in this super nice red Camero wearing all black. He’s seriously such a character. Also in our last lesson, he told me that he has 6 houses in Nicaragua by the beach and that me and my family can go anytime we want (hear that family??). All that aside, Edgar is actually really humble and awesome. He loves the gospel and is just so "hungry" to learn. 

Also, funny story... we actually got locked out of our house a few days ago. We woke up and went for our morning 1.5 mile run and when all four of us came back, the door was locked. Sister Callister and I had to run 6 miles to the Elders house to get a phone to call our landlord but all was well and it worked out! It’s a good thing that Florida is below sea-level and I've recently fallen in love with running. We for sure will never get locked out again though! 

But anyways, I LOVE YOU ALL!! So much! Thank you for all your love and support that you give me! I am so thankful for you all and pray for you every day! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

Alma 13: 23-24

23 And they are made known unto us in plain terms, that we may understand, that we cannot err; and this because of our being wanderers in a strange land; therefore, we are thus highly favored, for we have these glad tidings declared unto us in all parts of our vineyard.

24 For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory.

Pictures: 

Me and Pres&sister Richardson

Sister Leslie and I

ALL of my companions :) 

JUNE 26, 2017

RANDOM MAN; "I'M ATHEIST", ME: "ARE YOU SURE"?

HOLA MIS AMIGOS 

First of all, I love you! I hope you had such an awesome week! Life is still so awesome out here. I am currently writing this from the Naples Public Library and the rain is dumping down, the power has already surged twice and lighting&thunder are hitting at the same time. Hurricane season is in FULL FORCE

This morning we took our P-Day stroll in down-town Naples and Naples Pier, it was so great. SUPER hot, but seriously my favorite thing to do on P-days. I wish you could all see how amazing it is here. It’s really hot and rains alllll the time but its honestly PARADISE. I might just stay here forever ;) 

This past week was packed, I call weeks like this "marathon weeks"-- it’s so fitting. On Wednesday, we went to Miami for the last Zone Conference with President and Sister Richardson. It was so weird saying Bye to them! They have become two of my most favorite people. I think my favorite thing about them was that they always stressed obedience yet at the same time, staying "yourself". Staying true to who the Lord created you to be. I will miss them so much! I am so blessed to be serving here in the FFLM. The "culture" here is something that you cannot compare to any other mission. I love this place. 

We saw a super cool miracle yesterday at church.  We were super bummed when our friend Edgar up didn't show and wasn't answering our calls or anything. Church ended and we were about to go into ward council when one of our members comes up to us with this man that I've never seen before. Apparently he was just kinda walking around outside trying to find the door to come in but didn't want to because he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt but our awesome member dragged him on in anyways. Turns out this guy, Juan Pablo, had met the sisters back in November, he left for Mexico and just now came back and woke up with a huge desire to go to church. We gave him a quick chapel tour, taught him the restoration, and committed him to be baptized on the 8th, all before the next sacrament meeting started! It was so awesome! It really taught me the importance of "seed planting". The sister missionaries planted such a great seed at his door step months ago that he remembered how he felt and the lord led him to the church.

Also this week, I asked and Atheist Man if he was "sure"....don't do that! And probably ruined about 15 peoples couches because of knocking in the rain. And got a super gnarly sunburn. 

My scripture this week comes from 1 Cor. 9:24

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain."

Keep on running ;) 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! And pray for you all the time! Have a great week!