Jenn on a Mission

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:58:02 -0800 Subject: Week of Birthday's Hi Family!   So this week was a week of b-day's for sure, it was both mine and Sister Davis's b-day's 2 days apart. And it was also Elder Lee's in our district on the same day as sister Davis so we did some b-day celebrating this week. It was alot of fun as Sister Coyle definitely spoiled us more than she needed to and we have great members her in our ward that I just love. Thank you for the birthday gifts and wishes I appreciate them alot.   We had an awesome experience on Monday evening that I wanted to share. We have been teaching a less active family for months now, it is just the mom and the two kids. She was baptised about 5 or so years ago and her husband was raised in the church. She did not have a strong testimony in the church when she was baptised so when we started to go visit them we felt strongly about teaching them the lessons all over again. Plus her son is 9 and had not b...

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:41:43 -0800 Subject: Wonderful Week of Training Hi Family!   This past week has been such a great week!  I was able to spend alot of time with me previous companion Sister Dalton.  We had training for four days this week, we did two days in Anchorage and two days in Palmer.  For the first two days Sister Davis went with Sister Squire and they worked their area in Eagle rive while sister Dalton and I went to the training. There was 8 topics that we got to learn about and they broke them down into 2 topics each day.  Intermixed with them was the new videos from the district 2 which is brand new they just filmed in Cali as Randy mentioned. They are alot more realistic and more effective for what they are wanting to teach than the last district. We were told they would be implementing this stuff in the MTC in May of next year.  It was great to get the training we did for those 4 days and to learn things we have already learned...

Change Hi Friends and Family,   This past week has been pretty busy and alot has happened. I am going to start by telling you what happened most recently and then go backwards.  This past weekend I have had the privilege of experiencing alot of change here on the mission. I found it ironic Randy you mentioned I would see it as you where right, it is a world wide mission change. We had a mission meeting on Saturday night with all the missionary's who are district leaders, zone leaders and trainers. So there was only 3 sister's present at this meeting as we are all 3 training this transfer, as they consider that leadership.  They are making mission changes with the mission world wide so that zone conferences and interviews will all be different now. And are implementing leadership training meetings, for me this means i get to attend a leadership training meeting for the next 4 days while they introduce all the new material.  I am interested to see how it will al...

Where did the week go? Hi Family and Friends!   Wow this week sure flew by!  It was such a good week, I love everyday out here on my mission being able to spend time with the people here in Wasilla.  This week we were able to plan 2 baptism that are coming up for this Saturday. Sonya and Oscar are both getting baptised and I could not be more excited.  I have been teaching Oscar ever since I got to the mission and have been grateful to be a part of his process in conversion through the spirit.  It was really funny when we were planning his baptism out as he said "I do not need anyone to talk at my baptism" We just sat there thinking well, whether you need them or not you are going to have them. He is such a funny person and has been so great to be around, every time he is always making us laugh. And has such a sweet testimony and journey that he has taken.   Sonya had a really rough week this week as she found our that her mother was able to adop...

Attack of the  Mosquito Hi Family and Friends!!!   So this week has been absolutely amazing!! I am so glad I was able to stay here in Wasilla as the people here are pretty amazing and we have such a great ward.  Having the opportunity to train has been great thus far, I have enjoyed Sister Davis so much and we have really dived into doing the work.  The first night she was here we taught a lesson with Nathan Todeschi. He had been on a trip for 3 weeks so I was pretty excited for him to get back so we could pick up were we left off.  He is doing so great, his wife is a member and she helps out so much with things he is struggling with as she wants their family to be able to go to the temple some day.  At the end of the lesson I felt prompted to give him the challenge of praying about baptism and testified how it would change his life. He has always mentioned how he feels like he wants to know everything before he makes the decision, so we talked a lit...

Another Week, this time with some sunshine Hi Family,   This email will be short so I will apologize in advance.  This past week has been a really good week as the work is moving forward and we are doing alot of great things.  The biggest progress we were able to see was with EJ.  As you know we have been teaching EJ for some time now and to know what his hang ups are have always been a challenge. Well when we were planning the lesson we felt prompted to discuss the plan of salvation. Not knowing why we needed to discuss this we just went with it know the spirit knows alot better than we do. The lesson went so well that night, EJ had some question about the plan and we were able to discuss and help him understand more what the plan was about. At the end we asked him were he wanted to be in regards to the plan, his response was well I want the same as all of you. So we said OK how do you obtain this. It was great to hear him answer and then to say well I have a...

Transfer Changes Hi Family and Friends!   This past week has been a bit crazy that is for sure.  With anticipating the upcoming transfer calls and staying focused on the work.  Sister Dalton was sick again on Thursday and Friday so sister yang and i did the work with out her those days.  On Friday we were able to teach Oscar again.  It was such a great lesson, he is an amazing person.  To meet a person who hold such high standards on his own without being taught to do so is such an inspiration to me.  We have been teaching him for 3 months now and we asked him how he was feeling about everything, well sister Coyle was asking alot of the questions which was great.  The part I loved is when he told us that the day sister Dalton knocked on his door and asked if we could share a message, he said the only reason he told us to come back was he was curios and had some questions.  It was the next day we had the appt., he had planned to only me...

Rain and more Rain Hi Family and Friends!   So it Alaska has official broke the record since 1951 of 29 days of rain, exciting right! Ya I never thought I would experience a month of solid rain but now I can say I have.  This last week has been great with the work and really rain or sun I love it here.  We have been able to teach alot of different people this week and are main focus these past couple weeks has been part member families. I still cannot believe how many part member families we have in this ward and the opportunities that have come up for us to start teach them.    An awesome experience we has last week was with a sister that is a member in our ward but is very less active. Sister Dalton and I would stop by her house often and we had never met her as her son would tell us she was always in the shower. Knowing after a time that was just an excuse for not wanting much to do with us we stopped going over there for a time. Well this last mon...

 The Work Continues Hi Family,   This week has been another good week with some great progress!  We have found that we have alot of part member families in our ward and have really been focusing on them this last week. With the boundary change from last transfer I have been going through the new ward list to update it and try to weed out who we now have in our ward. In doing that this name kept sticking out at me. I looked at the notes and realized we had visited this gentlemen before back in March but for some reason I could not remember it at all. With all the people we go see it did not really surprise me. Well I felt that we needed to go see him again so I added him to the plans for the week.   The day we stopped by his house it was great. He opened his door before we could even knock, and the first thing he said was I was thinking about you sisters earlier today. I thought wow we are supposed to be here. He visits a DR. in our ward and he had been tal...

Subject: I now think 60's is Warm From: Jennifer Booth Date: May 24, 2010 Hi Friends and Family! This week has been such a great week, the sun has been shining all week and it has been so warm. Of course it has not been above 60 but it feels way warmer than that. I think that 60's feel like 70's here as we have not been warming our jackets or anything all week. One thing is for sure when it warms it people get happy and are out and about a whole lot more. And of course FISHING season has begun so people disappear as well. Fishing here is Alaska is the thing to do as the fish are huge and they are great to catch. Dad you will be in heaven when you come up here and fish i can tell you that much, i am already scoping out places for you to go. So we have district meeting every Wednesday morning at the church. Well this Wednesday our district leader Elder Smout calls us and tells us we are doing something different for out district meeting and to...

A letter from Sister Booth: Subject: Adjusting Date: May 17, 2010 Hi Family! So this week was quite the adjustment having 3 of us instead of 2. We went and picked up Sister Yang on Tuesday as I told you last week and headed back to town. When we got back here, we went straight to Sister Coyles house for her greenie dinner. Every time a new missionary comes into the area, Sister Coyle makes them a greenie dinner, which is pretty funny. I remember mine and how she thought I was ridiculous because I did not eat very much. We of course laugh about it now that she knows me better. On the first day you are so overwhelmed that you hardly remember or appreciate it until later - that is for sure. I think your trainers are more entertained by it than anything. Here are some pictures of the Greenie Dinner: Sister Yang: Yummy! (Back to the letter): The next couple of days were good to see Sister Yang at appointment and what not. I have to tell you it is intere...

Here's a look at a few of the Elders in Sister Booth's District: Here they are relaxing: Here's a letter from Sister Booth: Subject: Transfers and Training Date: May 11, 2010 Hi Family and Friends! So I must say it was nice talking to the family this past Sunday! I am glad to hear you are all doing well and to hear your voices is always nice, for sure. So this letter is not going to be very long, as I do need to go soon. I just wanted to write and tell you how everything is going. Every District Meeting before we have transfers we do "Transfer Thomas." That is mission slang, which I am not a big fan of. Anyhow, it is basically guessing where we think everyone is going to be transferred. It was pretty funny, as they all thought Sister Dalton would leave and I would stay and train. Of course I thought they were all crazy on the training part, as I just was trained myself. But that was the whole district's prediction. Not sure I am a ...

This time we're going to start out with Sister Booth's email: Subject: Sick From: Jennifer Booth Date: May 3, 2010 Hi Family! So this week was a really long week, but good. It started out Monday with us having two appointments that night. The first called and cancelled, which we where able to reschedule. The last was with Trevor who we have been visiting for 3 or 4 weeks now. He has a major problem with drinking and has gotten a lot better, but has not shown that he wants to quit completely. Also, every time we visit with him he is always asking us for reasons why he should do this as he thinks he is going to hell anyway. It is pretty hard when an investigator keeps telling you this. We have tried to teach him and talk to him about Heavenly Father's plan and to show him that he is a Child of God. But over time I could see that he was not progressing. Well, on Monday night he told us he was going to meet us and the Elders at the church. He did not sh...

It's time to dance! Break out the poodle skirts and come on over to the church! Sis. Booth and Sis. Dalton participated in a fun night of dancing and fun! Here they are in their poodle skirts: The kids also had a great time dancing! Subject: April Showers From: Jennifer Booth Date: April 26, 2010 12:17:54 PM PDT Hey Friends and Family! So I titled my email "April Showers" as kind of a joke as really there is no showers (as in rain) in April. It is all SNOW, and below is a funny picture of me tracting in the snow in the middle of April. The great thing about the snow is that it does melt after a couple days so we do not have it for too long. Alaska is pretty much just like Nevada or Arizona just opposite. Instead of getting hot and hotter we have cold and colder. It is just great:) I am sure looking forward to the summer when everything turns green. That is for sure! This week has been such a great week! The best news of the week is...