Jensen, Emma

So I am not officially at 9 months yet but today is my half way point:) I have been a missionary for 286 days and I get to be a missionary for 286 more These past 2 weeks have been slow, lots of appointments fell through and not much success at our teaching center or visitors center. We went to the temple this week to do Endowments. I just love the temple! God is great! He has made it possible for us to have a place to do the work for people that have already died. That is just so awesome to me that He loves everyone SOO MUCH that he wants everyone to have the opportunity to live with Him again, even if you didn't learn about His gospel in this life. In 2 Nephi it says "he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him". If you have the opportunity to go to the Temple this week, take it:) I promise you that you that you will find strength from your ancestors that you are helping Basically that is all that happened th...

The Visitors Center carpets were being cleaned this week so we had to walk around barefoot our whole shift. I think I have grown accustomed to taking my shoes off whenever I am inside so I thought it was so fun We had so many amazing lessons this week with our friends and our members The best part of my week was that my grandma is in town! I got to give a tram tour go my grandma, aunt/uncle, and cousin and it was so fun! I was shaking when I saw them cause I was so excited haha. I also got to go to dinner with them last night and my little cousin kept saying "in starving for ice cream!" So obviously we had to go get ice cream after so she wouldn't starve A kid from Kahuku, Iam Tongi, has made it into the top 3 finalists on American Idol and her is here on the north shore to film his home town. All the locals are going crazy showing there Kahuku pride At Zone Confrence this week we focused a lot on Obedience, Forgiveness, and Charity. These are 3 things that I have been pe...

I thought alot happened this week but as I am looking back through my journal basically nothing happened We started teaching a part member family this week. The parents are members but all their kids are unbaptized. There family is so sweet and I am so excited to teach the lessons to kids. Trying to find fun ways to teach kids is so hard but I am excited for the challenge. On exchanges this week I went into my STL'S area. It was so good! She gave me a lot of great advice on how to be a better missionary and a better companion:) While I was at the Polynesian Culture Center passing out tram reminder cards I got completely FRIED! I look like a tomato!  That is about all that happened but something that I was reading in my studies this week was Ether 6:7  "And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompa...

I felt so strongly that I was leaving the area but nope, I am staying in Hauula 2nd ward! I have grown so close to some of the members of this ward and I am so excited to be with them for another 6 weeks:) Kawehi got baptized this week! It was such a beautiful baptism and he was soo happy afterwards:) so many of his family members and ward members came to support him. When we were talking to him on Sunday after church he was holding his membership certificate and he was telling us that he was excited to take it home and frame it. We have gone over to his house a couple times since the baptism and everytime I talk to him he is just smiling soo big! People always talk about members having this glow to them and I honestly have never noticed it. Maybe it's because I have grown up in such a member populated area idk but when I see Kawehi he is radiating the light of christ and is shining so bright! I feel so blessed that God gave me this opportunity to help Kawehi grow his testimon...

I went on exchanges again this week with my district leader Sister Morse. I absolutely love going on exchanges and I love being able to go into another area for the day. Unfortunately the Sister that drove my car while I was gone left the car door open all night while it was pouring rain. That was super fun to wake up to.  We have spent the rest of the week trying to dry out our car. On the bright side the only seat that got wet was mine...:/ Something that I am absolutely terrible at is memorizing things. Like I am so bad! One of the things we get to do in our mission is give tram tours to tourists from the Polynesian Culture Center to the Visitors Center. I have been working on memorizing the script for SOO LONG and I finally finished memorizing it this week. I am so proud of myself haha.  We almost got a duck to walk into our house My STL was having visa issues and ended up getting sent home. We all went to sat goodbye to her before she left and it was the saddest thin...

Side effects from not eating sugar: I'm always hungry and never satisfied with what I eat, I'm grumpy all the time, constant headaches, and I am less bloated. Besides the less bloating I do not see the reason for wanting to not eat sugar because this is the worst! On the bright side Kawehi told us that keeping the word of wisdom has been very easy so glad one of us is doing well. We met the sweetest lady on one of our trams. When we got to the temple she came up to me and started asking me different questions about our faith and the temple. She told me that she was Muslim and very happy in her beliefs but loved learning about what other people believe. Our conversation was SO good and we both learned so much from each other:) turns out we both have alot of the same beliefs, especially when it comes to life after death, we just call them something different they they do. I love when I am able to have interactions like this at the Visitors Center where we are both able to learn ...

I think from now on maybe just assume that if I don't send an email it is because my car broke down.  Last week the fuel pump broke in our new car 2 hours away from Laie so we spent most of our p day waiting for someone to come pick me and my companion up. The Elder that is over cars in my mission actually thinks I am cursed with bad luck when it comes to cars because in the last 9 weeks I have had 3 tire leaks, 1 tire pop, and now the fuel pump broke. We did see miracles that day though, like it broke down at the one spot we would be able to pull over and get off the road and we picked up food on the way home so we had something to eat while we were waiting. So even though I am cursed, God is still looking out for me General Conference was so amazing! We invited the Sisters that live on the other side of the duplex we live in to come over and watch it with us cause we have a TV. We wanted to make it comfortable so we carried there couch over so there was enough seating. It wa...