Jenn on a Mission

Hi Family, It was so good to talk to all of you on Christmas and catch up on how  you are doing. We had a wonderful week of Christmas with the work here  in Petersburg, with the holiday going on it was easier yet harder to  pin people down. We visited with allot of people in town and made our  way around on the 24th as Ulabucking took place that day. Allot of  people come home for the holiday's as I have never seen the streets so  full in all the days I have been in this little town. Ulabucking (which  I am sure I am spelling wrong) is a Norwegian tradition which the town  or stores give back to society for shopping their year round, the way  they do this is by giving away a bunch of food and goodies. It is  pretty crazy to say the least, some places give away full on meals. We  had a good time as everyone in the town is out and about visiting and  wishing everyone a merry Christmas. I would have to say Petersbu...

Hi Friends and Family! This week has been such a great week, I was able to have a great Christmas present as that is what I think of it. As I experienced a great Baptism of Joe Prus. To see him make this change in his life and enter the waters of baptism is such a gift. My thoughts are turned to the savior and the gift he has provided for all of us if we but partake. I am so thankful this Christmas season for the gift of life to be on this earth and be able to have experiences. Being a missionary has truly blessed my life and has forever changed it. I am hope that this Christmas season you will all take the time to think about your savior and the sacrifice he has made for you. I am loving it here in Petersburg, it has been cold as the sun is shining. We have been visiting as many as we can and just enjoying the spirit that comes with Christmas. I am thankful for the members here and their willingness to help. Sister cook came and helped me on Wednesday...

 "I am walking on a cloud" Hi Family and Friends,   So this past week has been great, I love entering into the Christmas season.  We has some great things happen this week that have really touched my heart. On Tuesday we had the privilege of teaching a new investigator by the name of Tina, we have been trying to get a hold of Tina for a really long time and finally last week she made a appt with us. When we got there she was all ready for us to come, she did not grow up with any religion in her background and has always been searching. When she got married her husband grew up in the Catholic church so she thought naturally that is the church they would start attending. Well he did not want to go to that church as he felt forced to go all his life, I just sat there thinking not having anything in your life as far as belief goes and how hollow that would be.  She has started attending the bible church but is open to learning about the Mormon religion, we committ...

Did She just call me out? Hi Family!   This past week has been a good week, and a little slow going as my companion got a cold. It is never fun to be sick, and I decided if one gets sick you pretty much feel like and learn you both are dealing with it. She toughed through the week and I am grateful for that as we got some great work done. The highlight of the week for me was teaching Joe, we have taught him week after week and each time I just think of how ready he is to accept the gospel in his life and be baptised. It is just taking that leap of faith and accepting this is what he wants. When we taught him on Friday we talked about the principle of tithing and how it is important to apply it to our lives, we asked if he is willing to live and apply it to his life. He talked about a few things but in the end he was willing to pay tithing as he is a very generous person in general. Before the lesson Sister Davis and I felt we needed to talk to him about the baptism inte...

The Spirit was so Strong it could blow you away! Hi Friends and Family,   Another week has come and gone and here I am emailing you again, sometimes I wonder how they go so quickly.  Last week was a great week as we had the opportunity to spend most of it in Juneau.  On Monday we got on the morning Jet and landed in Juneau that afternoon and had the elders that are in Juneau meet us. It was fun for them to figure everything out as we are the only sister's in the Juneau zone so that meant that we did not have the other sister's to stay with this time. President Dance decided just to have us stay at a hotel to make things easier as a member their owns a best western property. I cannot complain as it was a pretty nice room and some of the better night rest I have had in a bit. That evening we went out on a zone tract in the elders area which was kinda entertaining. At the very end a Chinese lady let us in and talked to us for a bit, it was hard to understand her ...

Learning to keep the balance! Hi Family,   This past week has been a good week in Petersburg. I am learning new things about the people here and the area, we were able to teach a new investigator last night which was a great experience. We have visited Barbara a couple times before but she finally was able to find time to talk to us about the gospel. She has allot of questions and her biggest desire is to know why there is so many different churches out there. My favorite part is after explaining everything leading up to the restoration she says ya that has not yet happened and the whole earth would have to be taken out for it to (referring to the restoration) we just smiled knowingly as we testified of the restoration and how truly the gospel has been restored. I love being able to share the truth and to see the light and understanding dawn in their eyes.   We are learning that here in Petersburg you have to find a balance with your time, people here love havi...

 Hi Family!   This past week was good, and work moved as usual. Petersburg is a very festive and close knit place I am learning. We were able to attend October Fest on Saturday, at first we wanted to go tracking but when we figured out no one was home because of all being at October Fest we ended up there as well. It is a really cool thing the town puts together with booths were people sale homemade things. It was fun to see what people put together, we also helped hang quilts people had made and it inspired me just a little to maybe make a quilt:)     Wednesday we had a lesson with Christina and had sister Hayes with us. It was a great lesson, we felt that she needed to hear about the word of wisdom so that is what we focused on. She was willing to live the word of wisdom and even got rid of all her black and green tea. It was awesome and she is still praying about a day to be baptized and everything. Friday we taught Joe and had a great lesson, ...

 "If he brings you to it, he will take you through it!" Hi family and friends!   I can never get enough of this! I love being a missionary and being able to share the gospel. Last Monday we had the opportunity to meet with Becky again who is the young girl that had an experience with her friend in Canada. It is awesome to see how eager she is to learn. She did not grow up with hardly any religion in her home so this is all new for her. We talked about the atonement and the role it plays in our lives, she did not even know who Christ was. I cannot imagine going 20 or more years in my life and not know who my savior is. She said she feels like she is just meeting him that day, we review each time as it is all new and takes time to soak in.   On Tuesday we finally were able to make time to go and visit Barbara again. She was being taught by elders before and they left after a couple lessons as they transferred them out and then closed the area. She was not happy about that...

Could life get any better? Hi Family!   This past week was such a great week, I love being able to share and teach the gospel. We had allot of opportunities to teach this week and to find new investigators which I love. We went and saw a girl named Stephanie on Monday night who has some very hard views in regard to Christ and the bible. It is interesting as she says she will not conform to any religion but she does love learning about them. She has visited with allot of missionary's in the past and enjoys talking to them about the LDS religion. As we taught her the first lesson, it became more and more evident that she did not have a knowledge or I should say belief of who Jesus Christ was. She views him as someone just like us and does not think of his life as anything significant. As the lesson went on I was wrestling to know whether or not we should spend more time with Stephanie or if her heart was just to hard. As I was praying during the lesson I felt strongly about gi...

"Squeeze the Ballon" Hi Friends and Family!!   This past week has been so amazing, I think I say that about every week but that is how I feel about my mission!  This week we spent allot of time finding people. Being in a new area and not knowing many people we needed to figure out who people were. Are ward is so supportive and has given us many referrals over the past couple of weeks and it has really helped us out. On Monday we went and met with Becky Luszac who is such a great person. Her journey for wanting to know more about our church started in Canada, she was visiting a friend there who had the missionary's over for dinner that night. Well they happened to be sisters and after dinner they gave this spiritual thought that really touched her and brought her to tears. She wanted to know what that feeling was she was experiencing and about the scripture. After staying in touch with her friend and the missionary for a time she got in touch with someone here in pe...

 It is Raining Cats and Dogs Hi Family!   So this past week has been a pretty crazy week for sure. We just get to Petersburg and try to get settled only to turn around and catch a flight to Juneau. Elder Peiper from the seventy was coming to Alaska to meet all the missionary's and to hold a fireside with each stake and wanted to meet each missionary in person. Well as you can imagine for Alaska this meant alot of traveling as it is a well spread out state, in our zone alone only 6 missionary's reside on the same piece of land. We are all spread out on the southeast part of Alaska so it was pretty fun to actually get to meet the missionary's from the zone as some of them I had never met before.   Elder Pieper taught us some amazing things that I will take with me for the rest of my life. The way he held both the fireside and our conference was by asking us questions and then spending time answering them. He gave some good insight about how to do personal study a...

Adventure of Petersburg Hi Family and Friends!   This last week has been a great week, and full of different experiences. Last week after we hopped on the ferry we realized that we did not know who would be meeting us when we got there. So we made a few phone calls to try and figure it out, well come to find out they did not even know we where coming! We finally got ahold of the RS president who is the wife of the branch president (this place is very small) and she told us she would meet us at the ferry doc at 5am in the morning. The ferry ride was great as we were able to sleep most the time, becuase thankfully they got us a cabin to sleep in.   When we arrived we joined Sister Marsh at her house for seminary, there was only 3 kids there. She proceeded to tell us that is all that comes every morning for seminary. I thought wow, Moapa is really big compared to this place. We then realized that we had no place to live as no one had coordinated that for some reason...

Hanging out in Juneau Alaska! Hi Friends and Family!   Wow what a crazy two weeks! Right now I am sitting in Juneau Alaska with the Juneaa sisters waiting for our fairy to take us to Petersberg Alaska. We got our transfer calls yesterday and they called and told me I would be opening up a new area with Sister Davis(not the one I just served with, crazy there are two!) in Petersberg Alaska. So pull out your maps as you will have to in order to see where I will be located for the next little while. It is on of the many islands that is along the southeast side of Alaska and is very small. I am guessing it may be a tourist hot spot of something, I have been told that it is very beatiful there. I will let you know next week after I arrive and the adventure begins.   Leaving Wasilla was pretty heartbreaking for sure, I pretty much felt like I was leaving my second family. I have come to love the members there and am really going to miss being in their home and around them...

Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 12:10:06 -0800 Subject: A baptism to remember! Hi Friends and Family!! This week has been so amazing, there could have been no better way to end a transfer!  We had transfer calls yesterday and of course all the elders tried to scare me and tell me i was going to get transferred thankfully i did not and get to stay here one more transfer. I have been in Wasilla my entire mission which is pretty crazy to think about but I love it here and want to stay here as long as the lord desires. Plus being with Sister Davis has been such a blessing so to serve with her for one more transfer will be great. We have so much work that is progressing and we are doing.  Last week was great our investigators are progressing and things are moving along. For both Oscar and EJ's lesson's this week we took new fellow shippers from the other ward so they could start to get to know the members from that ward. Both of the people picked were truly inspired we had less...