March 13, 2017
Hey Hey!!
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| You're In! |
Okay so this week went by CRAZY
fast. I haven't thought about the gram at all since coming on my mission...but
I sure as HECK thought about the gram this week because I so badly wanted to
post a picture announcing my acceptance into the best undergrad ad program in
the nation!! Man oh man. As soon as I saw that picture I felt this huge weight
being lifted off my shoulders. I didn't even realize I was so tense/stressed
about that application until that moment. Life became a lot more manageable
once I realized that I actually have a future to come home to in sixteen-ish
months. (Mom explanation:
We received an email on Tuesday evening, March 7th, notifying us of
Jenn’s acceptance into BYU’s Advertising program. We immediately forwarded the
email on to her but knew that she wouldn’t read it until the following Monday,
March 13th. We also knew she
was eager to find out the result and would be ecstatic when she did. We were
trying to figure out a way to notify her before Monday when we received a text
message Wednesday morning from a Sister Barrott in Arizona. She sent us a picture of Jenn and told us
that she had fed her and her companion over the weekend and was going to feed
them again that night. It was an answer to our prayers! So we sent Sister
Barrott a picture of us holding a sign telling Jenn she had made the program
and she agreed to show it to her. Sister Barrott’s daughter even videotaped
Jenn’s reaction and sent it to us. It is priceless!) Isn't Sister
Barrott awesome? I love her and her family so much! They fed us twice in one
week and each dinner was delicious yet HEALTHY!! I told her that it reminded me
a lot of the way that my mom cooks, so it was like having a little taste of
home. :) Thanks so much for all the congratulations and all the support! It
means the world.
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| Joint Celebration |
And thanks mom for the fun package!
Sister Sorenson and I threw a joint congratulations and birthday party last
night and we had a really really good time. I'll make sure to send some photos.
It happened this week. I took my
watch off in public and I heard someone say "Woah...check out her watch
tan!" This week AZ was hitting the mid 90s. RIP. I think for the first
time in my life I'm drinking enough water. I've been downing 100+ ounces of
water every day this week, and more when you factor in the Gatorade and juice I
drink as well. It's crazy.
We worked HARD this week. It was the
first week of the transfer that we didn't have any exchanges and we made the
most of it. We contacted so many people and we saw miracles.
The first one is that we were
working in our YSA ward, and we put an address into our GPS that is really far
away and we sat there in our car and said...is it worth the miles?? (We only
get 1100 miles a month...you would not believe how fast 1100 goes by.) We
decided it was...and when we got to that address there was nothing there!!
Ohhhh, we were so mad. But then I started feeling really strongly that we
needed to stop by this referral from the Elders that we've been trying to
contact for a few weeks now. We drove all the way back and stopped by this
referral and finally met this girl! It turns out that she is totally golden.
She's amazing. She's super busy and super intelligent...and she's looking to
add religion into her life! We found out when we stopped by that she had just
gotten home...so if we hadn't gone to that super far address we wouldn't have
caught her. We'll start teaching her this week.
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| Another Amazing AZ Sunset |
Then that night we were out on
bikes...and we decided to go stop by some Potentials. Since we just whitewashed
in we've spent the majority of this transfer trying to get our feet on the
ground and make sure that no one falls through the cracks. We've been knocking
this one door since basically the beginning of the transfer with no response.
We decided to knock on this door and we finally got a response!! This teenager
named D'A opened the door and we read him a passage from the Book of Mormon and
he told us that the other Sisters had left him a copy and he's been reading! It
was super cool. He's interested in coming to YSA, so we'll have the Elders stop
by this week.
Haha, funny story…We street
contacted this lady the other night named B. She was super nice, but told us
that she knows everything that there is to know about "John Smith."
Haha....except his name evidently.
We contacted a less active/part
member family this week. The other missionaries have worked with them in the
past and have dropped them because they weren't progressing....but the mom is
the non-member and she just received a stake calling in scouting and is
magnifying her calling so we thought that maybe she would be more receptive. We
taught them last Monday night and invited them to come to church this week,
because they haven't been to church in a while. THEY WERE THERE YESTERDAY!!
They walked in and I was like "Sister Sorenson...it's the M’s."
oooooooOOOOHhhhhhHHH!! That was super super cool. And then it was way awesome
sitting there and listening to the talks and realizing that everything that was
being said was catering EXACTLY to this family's needs.
A fun twist that happened this
weekend! We got a mini missionary! Our mission has roughly 24 stakes within it,
and each month two stakes send Laurels/Priests out with us on "mini
missions." They come and live as a missionary for a weekend. We got the
call last Thursday that we would be hosting two minis and honestly we were
pretty bummed. We were so excited to have a weekend where it was just the two
of us, because we haven't been together for a full weekend since the very start
of the transfer. Plus minis are stressful because they don't really know what
they're doing and a lot of times their parents have made them come so they're
kind of a handful. But we were like okay this is fine, let's look at the
blessings. Really all we could come up with was that we would get to do splits
on Saturday and we'd get a lot of work done, and we would be able to attend
every single Sacrament meeting and ward council on Sunday.
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| Mini-Sister B |
So we roll up to the "pick up
the mini" meeting and the APs tell us that one of our minis wasn't coming
until the next day, which we were also annoyed with haha. However, the mini we
had with us was super awesome! Her name was Sister B and she was 17. The only
scary moment we had with her was our Friday night dinner, when she started
bearing testimony of Satan. Hahaha that was kind of worrisome but as
missionaries you ALWAYS back up your companion so both Sister Sorenson and I
were sitting there like "Amen...Satan is REAL and he WILL try and get
you." haha so that was kind of funny but it all ended up good.
Saturday morning we got a call in
the wee hours of the morning telling us that our second mini had cancelled and
we were SOOO MAD. Like literally that ruined all of our plans for Saturday and Sunday
and Sister Sorenson and I were like "Wow, people just don't realize how
much bailing on the missionaries ruins their lives" haha a little
overdramatic…but we quickly adapted our plans and decided that I would lead out
all day on Saturday, since that had been the plan if the other mini came.
Man...Saturday was rough. When you have minis you want all these miracles to
happen and you want everything that is missionary work to pan out perfectly
because you're trying to give these people a good idea of a mission...but
nothing was working haha. No one was home, and every single one of our lessons
cancelled...and it was just a mess. Sister B was a TROOPER though. At one point
we were working in our closest ward...and we weren't having any success, and
Sister Sorenson started feeling like we needed to move to Cloud Creek--our farthest
ward...which we had already biked to once that day. We stopped right there and
I said a prayer on the street. I went "Heavenly Father...we are out
working and we don't know where to go...please help us know where you need us
to work." and as soon as I said that I felt this overwhelming sense that
we needed to go to Cloud Creek and I knew that He was right there with us.
So we went to Cloud Creek....and no
one was home!! Man we were expecting to see this huge miracle and
then...nothing. Haha and we ran out of water halfway through our bike ride to
CC and then no one was home so we were like in the dead heat of the day in AZ
with no water with a mini missionary. We were so delirious haha at one point we
saw a hawk swoop down and catch a prairie dog so that was cool...and then
Sister Sorenson goes "LOOK!! ANOTHER ONE!!" and I looked and it was a
UNITED AIRLINES COMMERCIAL JET hahahahahaha I seriously think I almost crashed
my bike I was laughing so hard. She literally thought a commercial jet was a
bird of prey. Haha I can't remember if I said this last week but last week she
thought a coyote was a turkey?? This is what happens when you don't wear your
glasses.
This is turning into a very long
story but basically at the end of the day on Saturday we asked our mini what
she thought and she went "It was really hard but it was so
rewarding!!" and we were like what the heck is this girl talking about we
didn't see any miracles, we saw the opposite of miracles if anything! And she
was like "I'm willing to run out of water in the middle of the day and
have people cancel our appointments if it means I get to feel the Spirit like
this all day every day." and it was just like BOOM. Humbled. Haha Sister
Sorenson and I were like wow we were just absolutely wrecked by this mini who
knows next to nothing about missionary work, and it definitely made me appreciate
the blessing of having the Spirit with me all the time.
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| Companions for 1 Month |
Then, on Sunday, since our plan to
go to all our meetings was ruined when our second mini cancelled...we made it
to all sacrament meetings and one ward council. The ward council was
INCREDIBLE. It was the single best meeting I've ever been to in my life. It was
centered entirely on missionary work...and once the ward mission reported, the
bishop trained us. He told us that "no one becomes celestial because
someone else thinks they are. You become celestial because you move closer to
Christ." and he also told us "we don't have time to be offended by
other people--our calling is too important." Both of these statements
really hit me, and the Spirit was tangible in the room. Halfway through the
training, as I was being enlightened and edified I realized that if our other
mini had shown up I wouldn't have been in that meeting, because the plan was
for Sister Sorenson to attend all the ward councils, and for me to attend all
the sacrament meetings. Everything happened just as it was supposed to, and I'm
so grateful for it.
This is the last week of transfer
one! We had interviews with President this week and mine went well...I am
running out of time so I can't talk about it but I'll send a letter!
I love you so much! Thanks for all
you do!
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| Bella Vista Zone's Soccer Squad |
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| What I Can't Listen To |
Sister Jacobson
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| Secret Admirer? |
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