Miracles

Hello Everyone! 

This week has been such a miraculous week and I can tell you that my testimony of the Priesthood has grown as we follow the inspired counsel of our mission president. Today is the last day of walk-n-talk August... where has it gone, and I can tell you that we have seen so many miracles in doing this this week... here are just a few. 

1. Harris and his family. We had a dinner appointment this week that ended up needing to just drop our food off at our house and so we were at our place when it was time to leave. We walked out the back like we usually do and there was this family on a bike ride that had stopped on the path outside of our house because the mother's break was not working quite well. Sister Cunningham stopped to talk to them and we asked them if we could come and share a message about how our families can be together forever and they said yes! We are going to go to see them today at 7!!!! We are super excited. 

2. Melissa. So a couple of weeks ago Sister Allard and I went to dinner at a birthday party for a recent convert in our ward and the cousin of the family Melissa was at the house. We started talking and we didn't know whether she was a member or not because Cameron Anderson is a recently returned member so she could have been. When we left we gave her our card and offered service in case she needed anything. She texted us a couple of days later and since then we have been able to get her a little help moving. We went to her house this past week with the Anderson family, and it turns out that she is a child of record, not a baptized less-active!!! She doesn't live in 5th ward but right outside in 4th ward, but wants to come to 5th ward with her cousins so we are working with the Elders so that they can come to our ward while she is there. We are excited to work with her and hopefully she will be at the Corn Bust this week. 

3. The Labash family. We were walking to a less-actives house and on our way to their house, there was this guy mowing the lawn. We didn't think that he would let us talk to him, but as we approached he turned his lawn mower off and said "Hello Sister Missionaries"... we were really confused the entire time because he acted like a member and talked like a member... so we had no idea if he was a member. Anyway when we walked away we searched our ward list and found out that he was the nonmember husband of Annetta Labash and that they have 3 nonmember children... um... HE WAS SO NICE!!! We got the chance to talk to Sister Fleming our bishop's wife about them and they might be on our radar for potential families to start working with again! He is a fireman and so it was a huge miracle that we were in the right place to talk to him. 

4. Elsie. We had dinner with the Hughes family this Sunday. Gerald came as well and they also invited a cute little Filipino lady named Elsie. She is a nanny in the area and has been going through some hard things, but we ended up teaching the 5 minute restoration for the dinner message and both Gerald and Elsie came to bible study this week!!! They both enjoyed it and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. Brother Hughes called us this morning and said that he was doing some follow up today and asked her if she wanted to meet with us and she said yes!! We have her number and are now waiting for her to respond!!! Miracle! 

5. Gerald. Gerald got the chance to go to the temple this past week! There was a ward temple trip and camp out and he spent the time with a very recently returned missionary in our ward... Jamar Jensen (no relation). He said that he felt the spirit really strongly and admits that the temple is such a special place. We talked to him a little bit and it is amazing to see the changes that he is making. He said that when he gets baptized that he wants to do it right and so he is praying so that he will have enough faith to enter into the covenant of baptism and make the changes in our life. He also reassured us that we have done so much for him and that his faith in Christ has grown so much. 

6. Kathrine. Kathrine is someone that I met my first week here in Medicine Hat. She was very nice, but didn't seem to be interested. However for these past couple of weeks, her daughter Makiah has been coming to church with the Andersons and wants to keep coming. When we were over at the Anderson's house, Sister Anderson said that Kathrine wanted to start coming to church, so we had Hailey and Kayla Anderson show us where they live and it turned out to be the same person that I have met my first week here!! We invited her to the corn bust, and hopefully she will be able to make it out with her family this Sunday!! 

I have really spent my time this week trying to remember at all times that everyone in a child of God. He knows each and every one of us and also knows what we are ready for and what we need. 

Other activities of the week! 

Tuesday: We spent Tuesday morning driving out to Taber for our first zone conference with President and Sister Miles! I LOVE THEM! They are seriously the best! Zone conference went from 10-5 and we learned about humility, working with members and the restoration of the gospel and let me tell you I am so very grateful for each of those trainings. After the conference, Sister Cunningham and I went on Exchanges with Sister Kolkava and Sister Wallock, the Taber Sister Training Leaders! Taber is so fun! It is just a cute little farming town and I got to spend the night and day with Sister Kolkava. She is from the Czech Republic and has the cutest accent (kind of like Heidi Kloom). She has been out one more transfer then me and we went to their annual Corn Bust. We had to set up for it before the meeting and both of us have kind of gimpy hands because of my no longer broken but still weak wrist and her recently fractured arm... so it was interesting, but everyone in Taber is so nice and President and Sister Miles came too, so it was awesome. Oh and everyone in Taber is named Jensen... and apparently there is a rivalry going on to see who has the best Taber corn because apparently Taber corn is the best and Jensen Taber corn is the best Taber corn... I have no clue. Good corn is good corn. And apparently people in Medicine Hat like Huber corn. I don't get it.

Sorry for the long rant today, It was a very eventful week. I could write three more paragraphs but I will spare you the reading. I love you all... sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera died and I was charging it but forgot to bring it with me again. 

Love you lots. 

Sister Jensen  

Happy Birthday Sister Cunningham!!!

Hello Everyone!

Exciting things going on this week!! It is Sister Cunningham's birthday on Thursday and she is turning the big 20!! I am kind of excited because I have never been able to celebrate another companion's birthday with them.... so I might be taking her to the butterfly farm and paying for it when she isn't looking... as well as telling everyone that it is her birthday on Thursday... and getting her a present... somehow without her seeing it or at least know that it is for her. I think it will be a much better way to spend my one year mark... because it is always better to celebrate others instead of yourself!

This week has been awesome!! We gave numbers to our district leader yesterday and when Sister Cunningham said that we had seen 7 less-active or recent convert members I was so shocked that I had to check myself. It is amazing what you can do when you are trying to be obedient and improve and refine your skills as a missionary and relying on the Lord for his help. We have had some pretty cool miracles this week!

1. Kianna. We went to go knock one of our less-actives doors that we had never met and met her son Cory. He told us that the one that we really wanted to see was Kianna as she had just been baptized recently in Utah and just got back to Canada. Long story short, Sister Cunningham went on splits with Sister Hyde on Wednesday and their original appointment cancelled so they went back and met Kianna. It turns out that she is the most solid 16 year-old I have ever met. She is so cute, and she got baptized a year ago in Utah while living with her grandma who made her go to church while she was living with her. We are going to help her get integrated into the ward, and start rereading the Book of Mormon with her to try to get her honor bee!!

2. Anna and the Luis family! Remember how I told you last week that we had met Anna because of a puppy that we had found? Well we went back on Monday and we were greeted by an unanswered door... so we decided that we should leave a note. We then went to leave and declared that we would come back later and then as we turned around a car pulled into their driveway and Anna's sister came out. She said that no one was home but that we could come back on Thursday and everyone would be there! Miracle! When we came back on Thursday we were again greeted by the same thing... so we walked around and came back a half an hour later to find Anna's other sister home who said we could come by on Saturday... AND WE DID!! They were home, but we set up a really appointment for tonight at 7! We are super excited! They are from Columbia and we hope that we can start teaching them about the restored gospel!

3. Church! This week at church Sister Cunningham and I decided to bring the question of what we could do to help our area improve. We then went to church and while we were there received the impression that we could be working with the members by going to their houses, teaching the restoration, and inviting them to come out on splits with us. Our Stake president has asked that we go on splits once a week at least... and we are only going once every other week with the ward missionaries... so we feel that this will help the members to get out with us and feel the spirit of being a missionary.

4. Taylor - So on Saturday Sister Cunningham and I walked to the Tepee. It is about a 45 minute walk and once we are there we can go down into the coulee and talk to the people walking in the dog park... or we can stay up top and talk to the people visiting the tepee. As we arrived, there were only a few people....so we decided to go to the coulee. After a little while of talking to people, we sat down, ate lunch and then as we got back out to work some more, we met this guy named Taylor. It almost looked like he waited to talk to us and we had an amazing conversation about the purpose of life and the restoration of the gospel. He left and we did one more walk around the park and then went up to the top of the Tepee hill (which is killer) and met him again at the top. We then walked more and gave him a Book of Mormon. We hope that we are able to see him again soon!! It was amazing!

We are looking forward to an awesome week and a trip to Taber for Zone Conference! I am also going on exchanges with Sister Kolkova this week which should be pretty fun... however she too broke her wrist a couple of weeks ago... poor Sister. Anywho, I love you all and hope that you have had a great week. Remember that the Lord loves you!

Love,

Sister Kelliann Jensen

Walk-n-talk, Sister Cunningham, and the pulling of the pins

Hello Everyone!!! 

It really is weird that you all are a week behind on what's going on... I never really noticed it until I broke my wrist and in one week we would have gotten a new cast and everyone is still wondering about the last appointment. Haha, I guess time flies too fast when you are a missionary!! 

Anyway!! My new companion is named Sister Cunningham!!! She is the cutest! She just came down from Sheep River in Okotoks (the Foothills Zone!) and has been out on her mission for about 9 months now!!! She has also served in Jaffray in British Columbia!! She is from a little town called Lake Point right outside of Tooele, Utah (which is about a 30 minute drive west of Salt Lake on the other side of the Oaker mountains). I am excited to work with her! We have already seen many miracles!! 

Okay so some of you asked how transfers worked, so here is the scoop!!! The 5th week of every transfer is what we call in the mission, "Board week", which is the week that President looks at the board of missionaries and decides who is going where who is training. Training calls go out on Wednesday of that week. The next week is a fun one. Pday is moved from Monday to Tuesday and on Tuesday the Zone leaders get an email telling them who in their zone is being transferred and whether they are staying in the South or if they are going to the North of the mission. Then the zone leaders call us and tell us. This past Tuesday we got our call and Sister Allard, as you know, has been transferred to the North of the mission. I don't know where yet, but I will let you know once I find out. Then on Thursday, all of the missionaries who are getting transferred or a new companion go to the transfer points of the mission which are Lethbridge and Calgary. It takes us 2 hours about to get to Lethbridge so we left pretty early (stopped in Bow Island for a pastry) and had an amazing miracle on the way. 

When we left for Lethbridge we had only a little gas, so we went to go get some but the one gas station was out of gas... so we decided that we would just get gas at Bow Island. We drove to Bow Island and realized that our Tire Pressure gauge had turned on so we where going to stop and get the tire filled too, but then realized that there was really no gas station that we could use there... so we prayed and kept going to Taber. I prayed the whole time there, and once we got to Taber, I was originally going to stop at the gas station that we had stopped at on our way to Cardston, but felt the need to stop at the Co-op to get gas. We filled up, and then we went to leave and where very blessed because their was not only an air station, but it was free!! Once we got to Lethbridge we got Sister Allard's stuff in the van going North and split (the people going North have to sit on a different part of the chapel). Then we have an opening hymn and prayer and the transfer notices are given by the A.Ps by zone. 

Anyway. Enough about transfers we also had 2 other miracles this week. But first, my wrist is going really well. Dr. Baring pulled the pins last Tuesday (which didn't hurt at all) and took the cast off. I didn't have a ton of motion when I first got it off. It kinda of felt weird and I had to wear this pressure wrap for 48 hours because of the gaping wholes in the wrist, but it seems to be doing good. We went to my first Physical Therapy session today and she says that I have really good range of motion, gave me a few stretches and excersises and said that she wants to see me one more time in a week. After that week, I go see Dr. Baring one last time and I will be done with this!!! What a blessing it has been, plus we have seen like 10 miracles from going to the hospital alone! 

On Friday, Sister Cunningham and I were going to a street that we had planned to tract when we noticed a purse that was sitting on someone's porch. We looked into the back and waved down the girl that was mowing her lawn and she said that is was her purse but that she had forgotten that it was there. We talked to her for a bit and she agreed to let us come back on Wednesday!!! 

Also on Saturday there was a baptism in our zone, so we started working at 10 to see if we could find someone that would come to the baptism with us. In our last 15 minutes, a puppy randomly came up to us without it's owner so we said a prayer and set out to find the dog's owner. Long story short we ended up talking to the owner and neighbor... set up an appointment with the owner of the dog for tonight and found out that the neighbor goes to school with out Ward mIssion Leader!!! MIRACLE!!! Walk-N-Talk August is really an amazing thing for us to put our faith in. Any who... sorry for such the lengthy letter. I hope hat you all have had a great week!! I love you all!!! 

Love. 

Sister Kelliann Jensen 

Happy Transfer week!!!!!

Super sad but expected news this week. Sister Allard is getting transferred on Thursday :( :( :(. She will be going North so that means that she could be anywhere from High River to Airdrie. I will be getting a new companion here in Medicine Hat. I was thinking the other day about who I could get and I realized that I hardly know any of the Sisters in the mission anymore... and I used to know quite a few of them. However, it is exciting to think that I will get another new companion, so here is to companion number 6!!!!!

So, like I said last week, today I get the cast off and the pins taken out of my wrist!! My appointment is at 2 mountain standard time and hopefully won't take too long. This week has been really busy!! We have been walking all week and boy am I beat by the end of the day. The temperature has been upwards to 35 degrees to 40 degrees Celsius which is about 95 to 100 Fahrenheit and after 5 hours of walking in it every day, you are a little bit drained, but everything is still going well. We have been getting almost daily updates of miracles that have been going on because of Walk and Talk August. We get texts from our Zone Leaders that come in from the Assistants and they let us know about other miracles that have happened in the past week. We are really enjoying it here in Medicine Hat, especially because we are so far away and really only here news about other people in Medicine Hat.

Speaking of Medicine Hat, Sister Allard and I have been trying to find the most people that we can throughout our day. It can be tough here because we can walk around for 5 hours and talk to about 5 people, but we are looking for ways around that. Actually we found that the Tepee is one of the best places to go throughout the week, because tourists stop there a lot.

This upcoming week is super busy!! We have two lessons on Wednesday with two new investigators which we are excited to start working with. Lots of new things that will be going on that I will keep you in touch about. I love you all, we don't have a lot of time this week due to my appointment. Have a great week!

Sister Jensen

Well hello there August it is nice to see you again... seriously crazy!!! August!!!! Any who happy Walk-N-Talk August!!! This month we only have a total of 200 Kilometers that we can drive so most of our time will be spent walking!!!! Sister Allard and I walked a total of 5 hours on Saturday to kick start our month, and thanks to the Elders we received a new potential investigator. BE PREPARED FOR SUNSCREEN AND CRAZY TAN LINES!! 

Speaking of tan lines, as you can see I am newly casted and ready for the next few weeks. Dr. Baring x-rayed and checked my wrist on Tuesday and said that it is almost healed!!! YAY!! However, he is out of town for the next week so I will be getting my cast off and pins out on the 11th of August. We ran into a lady who works at the hospital in the dialysis unit and she said that Dr. Baring is the fastest and the best... so here's to hoping that the pins don't hurt too bad when they pull them. 

 So this week I have made it a point to pray before I study that I would be able to study with the spirit and know what I need for my investigators and companion. It has been really cool seeing that when I study and I want to learn, but that I also have the desire to know for others, that the spirit teaches me the things that I need to know for that day. It is my own personal "Daily Bread". It has been really nice because I recognize and trust more in the calling that I have more now, and I am able to help my companion and the people that I teach. Heavenly Father really likes to place me with people that seem to be learning the same things that I am. Over and over again I find myself working through a question or a similar trial that and investigator has, and it helps me to really know how to help them. 

 For example, this Sunday was Fast Sunday!! We had the opportunity to fast as a mission for the #MayNifty50 goal which is a continuous thing now for us missionaries. I also fasted for my own reasons and throughout the day, little things stuck out to me that I found to be cool. However, at the end of the day, we were able to talk to Gerald and I received and understanding of his needs which then ended up being an answer to my own fast!!! Heavenly Father truly knows me as He knows that I am way more willing to do something for someone else rather then myself. I love you all so much. Thank you for all of your support. 

We picked sour cherries this week...Also, as a mission we have stopped the use of Facebook. We are waiting to use it more effectively and receive more training so until further notice you shall hear from me on Mondays...!!! 

Speaking of Mondays.... next week is transfer week... so I will be emailing (and also getting my new cast off) on Tuesday... 

 Sister Kelliann Jensen