December 20

Lila was sick with the flu last week, so she didn't  write much on the 13th. However, this week she is feeling much better. Of course, with everyone so busy with Christmas, they don't have much time to talk to the missionaries about Christ...I remember that irony as well when I was a missionary in Portugal. But here is a "cool experience" that she had this past week that helped her to understand some scriptural passages better:

The other day we were talking to a 10 year old and gave him a Joy to the World card and were explaining that the people in the America's saw the star and knew about the Savior, and he showed surprise and interest, which is what I would expect from someone hearing that for the first time. Then later we were talking to an 18yr old boy about the same thing and he said, "Oh I'm in the cantata, I know all about the Nativity, but I bet my 10yr old sister would like this--she's been asking questions about it." He did not hear what we were saying and that we were presenting something completely new. As we were walking away Sister Maude paraphrased the scripture about having eyes and not seeing and having ears but not hearing and I finally realized what that really means because I was a witness of it. Often people are not open to something so they don't hear it or they misinterpret it. I looked up some of the scriptures about this the next morning during studies. Isaiah 6:9 "And he said, Go, and tell this people Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but percieve not" and Jeremiah 5:21 "O Foolish people, and without understanding which have eyes and see not; which have ears and hear not." It's also mentioned in the New Testament. It's amazing to be spreading the good news and people just assume it's old news. Time and time again I have had similar experiences tracting and it's just amazing how blind some people are. However, I love it when people see that we are teaching something new--that Christ has reestablished his original Church here on the earth again!


Love, Sister Lila Jenson

29 Nov 2010 Lila gets her 4th companion!

Dear Family and Friends,


I have a new companion and I love her! Sister Maude is from Alpine Utah. She has a younger brother and younger sister. She's been out more than a year and is going home in February, so in mission lingo I might "kill" her, i.e. be her last companion. She seems really dedicated and I think we are going to be doing some good work here.

We have two new people we are teaching and one of them has a baptismal date! Yay! As far as being busy during the holidays, she said, "Well I am going to be busy, but not too busy, especially for the Lord." Sister Maude and I were both jumping for joy (in our hearts of course).

Sister Howeth (the 80 yr old) is doing great--she came to church on Sunday and last week we finished teaching her the lessons and all the commandments and went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She is all set. Her baptismal date is December 11, so I'm very excited about that. The 9yr old we are teaching has a baptismal date set for Dec. 18 so I'm very excited about that as well. We've gone through the first three lessons and the next two weeks we'll be teaching him all the commandments.

Thanksgiving was great! We spent the afternoon with Sister Reid and then we went to the White’s (the family of the 9yr old we're teaching) for dinner and then taught a lesson to Dakota. And this Sunday the branch had a Thanksgiving dinner after church and that was yummy.

In my studies I have been reading over the General Conference talks and one sentence really spoke to me. "We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves." (President Uchtdorf "Pride and the Priesthood") I found that really insightful and I fully believe it because I have seen that in my own life as I have been here. Hopefully I have gained some humility and whatever I have gained has come because I am trying to be so focused on the needs of other people and not about myself. I have started to see how selfless service really has blessed me. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to learn how to be not as selfish about what I do and how I act.

Another part that spoke to me was in "Be Thou an Example of the Believers" by Elder Russell M. Nelson. He says, "Each Sunday extend a hand of fellowship to at least one person you did not know before. Each day of your life strive to enlarge your own circle of friendship." I mean I know it's good to be friendly but here is an apostle of God commanding us to have more friends. I guess then it's something pretty important. I also loved his story about people playing on the missionary field that made me smile.

Reading through General Conference has strengthened my faith in modern revelation, because not only did the general authorities say what I needed to hear they also spoke things that I know that the people I am teaching needed to hear, in fact even more than that, things the whole world needs to hear.

I also have been doing a more intense study of "Two Lines of Communication" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. Helping people to understand that we need the authority of God ( i.e. the priesthood) is hard for people here to understand, and his talk is perfect. Both really are needed and many people don't seem to know that they can get specific answers to prayers through the Spirit, answers and not just strength. When I've asked people, after they say they have read some of the Book of Mormon, if they have ever asked God if it's his words, or if it's true, they get this look like they never thought to do that. I know that it is so important to go to God to get answers. I love 1 Corinthians 2:9-14. I LOVE the New Testament. I surely don't understand half the things that Paul is saying but there is so much truth there!

It is so important to take the Bible as a whole. To believe everything that is there and not just select passages. For example, in Ephesians 2:8-9 it talks about how we are saved by grace, which we are, we surely don't earn our salvation. But then just a few pages over Paul in chapter 5:5-7 talks about how those who sin and are disobedient won't be part of God's kingdom. So obviously while we are saved by grace, we still have consequences for sin. The Atonement is amazing, I am so glad that I know how to apply the Atonement through faith and repentance in my life.

Sorry if this letter is "preachy" I'm just super excited about all the stuff I'm learning.

Love to you all!

Sister Lila Jenson

Transfers! Nov 21, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,


Well, guess what!?

My companion is getting transferred! I'm so sad. I've really enjoyed working with her and I've learned so much from her and she is just a super fun companion. After Wednesday morning I'll be companions with Sister Maud. She's been out about 14 months. I met her once a few weeks ago at the leadership training when I was there to get my quarterly interview with the mission president.

So the next two days are going to be crazy-packed--trying to make sure I know what I need to know about the area before Sister Glenn leaves. Thankfully I'll be able to see her next week when we have our Mission Temple Conference on Dec 2-3. It's kind of crazy how as a missionary our life is not in our hands at all.

Transfer weeks are crazy. Thursday we plan through the next Sunday but we never know if we will both be there or not. Sunday night we get the call about what is happening. Monday is P-day so we can pack if need be and then some of Tuesday is often to say goodbye to people and then Wednesday morning is transfers. Everyone gathers in the Moore Stake Center and it's cool to see all the missionaries and their companions who are getting transferred. Then the next week is trying to continue the work and adjusting to a new companion, a new way of teaching together, a new way of doing things and if your leaving a new set of members, investigators, etc.

I guess all in all I'm settling into mission life. I'm so grateful for the person I'm becoming and the work I'm able to do. This last week I have realized how much I love the Book of Mormon! We are teaching an 80 year old woman who is an energizer bunny! She has so much energy and always wants to learn new things. She is going to get baptized in the next few weeks and she LOVES the Book of Mormon. She studies it every night, both reading it and looking up scriptures from the lessons we have taught her and cross referencing it with the Holy Bible. She couldn’t come to church one week and so she looked at the program from church from the previous week which listed the Sunday School lesson that was being taught that day and studied it on her own. We asked her how she was feeling about church and what we had taught her and she told us that she likes it and that it all fits in with what she knows. After the first night of reading the Book of Mormon she said she knew that Lehi's vision had to be from God and that she knew the Book of Mormon was true. It is so amazing to see the gospel work in people's lives. She is the perfect example of how being Christian and being faithful to what you know can really be such a wonderful foundation for the restored gospel. She understands so much already and the skills and habits she has of reading & studying the scriptures and her amazing faith in the Lord and prayer will serve her so well and will help her to grow in the gospel. Seeing her example has really strengthened me and showed me again how wonderful this gospel really is.

I LOVE General Conference! On Friday we got the November 2010 Ensign (finally) and I love reading over those talks. I know without a doubt that the prophet and the apostles are called of God. The things they say are perfect and being part of many people's lives I have seen how widely they apply. The words they say are for everyone and everyone can benefit from them. I have come to see how essential faith is, that it is a principle of action, like people always say, but it really is true. When believe really believe and know that God loves them and that He has given us commandments then it becomes easy to make decisions about what to do and keeps us from being paralyzed by "Why?" question. We can't move on with things we are facing when we are constantly questioning the will of God, it doesn't help us to ask the why question, at all. One line that stuck out to me from a general conference talk was that, we face many decisions in our lives that affect our Eternal Salvation, "none of which are difficult." We often think of decisions as difficult and hard but if we have faith then it becomes obvious the things we should and shouldn't do and we have the motivation to do them as we build our faith in a loving Heavenly Father.

So that's what's up.

Love you all!

Sister Lila Jenson

2010 November 15 from Woodward OK

Friends, Romans, Countryman,

 

So here's some pictures or recent adventures or cool stuff we saw.

1. Sister Glenn and I in a cotton field
2. Me in a cotton field












3. Sister Glenn, some people from the branch, and me at halloween
4. Halloween fun
5. The doorway to our kitchen on Fast Sunday
6. The "Wizard of Oz" house Sister Glenn says it looks like it got brought there by a tornado, it's in the middle of a fiield.
7. An awesome plan of salvation lesson that Sister Goodell and I made this week while I was in the city.
8. The "Betty Boop" house in our area.
9. Sister Goodell, Me, Sister Glenn, and Sister Houstan in OKC this week. This was late one night when we were all about to go to bed.
10. Sister Glenn and I at the branch trunk-or-treat
11. My messy desk, I felt like lighting a lot of candles that I found the apartment and apparently
12. Sister Glenn found it amusing so she took a picture of it. It was a cold-rainy winter-like day and I was drinking hot chocolate so candles (in place of a fire) seemed very appropriate.Me, Sister Boonie Reid and Sister Glenn. Sister Reid is the nicest onry lady ever, she is 83 and is very independent but is pretty much home bound because she can hardly walk, so we go visit her :)

Being a missionary is really great, as well as it being hard and lots of work, it's tremendously fun. I still manage to be silly and myself even while being a missionary. I have met so many wonderful people and learned so many great lessons. This week one I learned was how much happier I am when I am focusing on others and how I can help them rather then on myself. At one point this week I was starting to feel a tad bit homesick. We headed off to stop by some less active members and after trying to do my best to help them with their concerns I came out and I realized I wasn't homesick anymore. I know that focusing on others and serving them is how I am happy and I hope to never forget that lesson.

 

This week I had a great time going back to the city. I was able to teach a man who I had taught before who got baptized about 2 weeks ago (about 2 1/2 weeks after I left the city). He's in his 60's, fought in the Vietnam war and has been through a lot. We got him a large print triple combination and all of the sisters who had taught him signed it and added their testimonies. I love teaching people because as well as sharing my testimony, I am able to hear their testimonies and faith. Many people I have taught have an unbelievable faith and reliance on God and Jesus Christ. They really do have a personal realationship and dedication to Him, and I learn a lot from their examples. Many people here have amazing faith andrelationship with God and all they are lacking is a little more knowledge and the power of the priesthood to baptize them. Many times we read of Jesus Christ praising Gentiles or Samaratians for their faith and Christ says that he hasn't seen that kind of faith amoung the Jews and I have started to see that as well. Many people have a really deep rooted faith many more then I do or then I see people in the church have.

 

Sister Glenn learned a lot at this week long Leadership Training that she went to, given by the mission president, with a lot of other missionaries. We are both very excited to impliment the things she learned and hope to give the work in Woodward a kickstart!

 

 Love you all!

 

Sister Lila Jenson

 



Halloween 2010 in Woodward

Dear Family and Friends,
I had a new experience this past week: on the way back from our District Meeting, we got a ride with some less-active memebers and we got to pick cotton!!!! Cotton is really pokey! But it was cool and I have pictures that I will email next week (I forgot the card reader today). Cotton is really soft :) but it has lots of big pits like seeds in it too.


Remember how I told you I got bit by little dogs? We'll we were in the same area on our bikes and those same dogs chased me for FOUR blocks on my bike, and they were trying to bite my heels the entire time!!!

So Halloween was fun, but it was also kind of hard because we couldn't really track much of the 30th and the 31st because many people trick-or-treated on the 30th. But we went to the ward party and that was fun. We handed out pass-along cards with candy on it and told all the kids, and adults that we handed them to, that the candy was for them and the card was to give to a friend. So I was glad we were able to do something missionary related and not just waste 3 hours. Yep, more cool photos to follow from that too.

In the last few days as we have to been talking to both investigators and people we have tracted into, one thing that has been on my mind is the power of God and people not understanding that. I've talked to people who claim we don't need the Priesthood or people with the authority to act in God's name, because all knowledge that we gain can come from the Holy Ghost. But at the same time they want to base whether The Book of Mormon is true on historical evidence, and don't realize that any true witness of truth comes from God. Yesterday we talked to a man who asked us if we thought it was strange (I think he meant suspicious) that no one except Joseph Smith saw the vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that very few saw the plates, and yet there was a lot of historical proof of the Bible and the events that happened in them.

I thought about his question later that night because I wanted to give his opinion it's fair chance. There were many times in the past that a prophet has seen visions that no one else did: Moses and the burning bush, Noah and the revelation to build the ark. I know that the vision given to Joseph Smith is very unique but it is also consistent with how God has worked in the past. Regarding historical evidence and The Book of Mormon I was thinking about how there are still people today who deny the Holocaust even though there is a mountain load of evidence for it. It all comes back to relying on God verses man. To get truth about spiritual things we shouldn't rely on our physical eyes or senses. We rely on our spiritual eyes and on God to give us an answer. I have seen many people who pray for strength or who pray for blessings, but I have come to realize that very few people pray for and expect answers to specific questions. I know that God does have the power to answer questions and that while we do need to study and prepare for an answer, God will always give us one.

Oh, I gave a talk in Sacrament yesterday about D&C 58:26-28. I centered my thoughts on three main topics, agency, the Holy Ghost, and diligence. There is a parable that Elder Bednar used in April 2010 GC about giving someone a fish versus teaching them how to fish and how this is so important when we are teaching children how to grow in the gospel. And it hit me when I was reading it that the Lord is trying to teach us how to fish with this scripture. In this scripture the Lord tells us that it is not good for Him to command in all things but that we should do many things of our own free will. He is teaching us to fish. He even shows his confidence in our ability to fish by saying "For the power is in them, where in they are agents unto themselves." This scripture isn't trying to get us to do more "things" but to become more and better. We have heard many times that this life is not a checklist of things to do but a chance to become like God, and that is what this scripture is encouraging us to do. The power we have to act is amazing, even though as a missionary the principle of agency gets frustrating when people don't choose to follow the Lord, it is a principle that has so much power.

I will end as I ended my talk, with D&C 123:12 "Therefore, dearly beloved bretheren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

~Sister Lila Jenson

New photos

Pictures


1. All the Sisters at the Mission Conference

2. Sister Glenn and I in our apartment with all the bikes

3. Sister Benett and I (She's from the same BYU ward I was in, but I didn't know her because she moved in after I left, but we have lots of the same friends)

4. Me riding the really old dorky bike (That I love) that I'm using now

5. Sister Glenn and I at the Mission Conference

Oct 25, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
The work is going well here in Woodward. Last transfers both of the Sisters here were laid up with health problems and couldn't go out teaching or tracting very much, but my companion is feeling much better and we have been working really hard to get new investigators and catch up with the ones they were teaching before.


This week has been a great crazy week. We are starting to really get the work going and we found a new investigator on Saturday, who came for the last hour of church on Sunday. We just taught him a first lesson and he was welcomed with open arms into the branch. He is here for 6months for a contract job and is from Texas. We were able to feel the Spirit very strong with him during the lesson and really feel he could get baptized. We also taught an investigator who just wanted to bash with us, which was a first for me. It was crazy we were trying to teach her about The Restoration which would really answer her questions, but she wasn't listening to us at all, just looking up the next scripture so she could tell us we are wrong. She did an online search before and was just reading us all these quotes of Joseph Smith from the Doctrine and Covenants and "asking" about them.

Sister Glenn and I learned a lot at mission conference and we are really working to be exactly obedient because we both know that will help us feel the Spirit and strengthen the work. One thing we are trying to do is to refer to investigators by "Brother_____" and "Sister___" Driving home from the conference we realized that both of us had had the prompting to start that, so we are.

Because of our trips to the city and district meetings we have no procelytizing miles (We get 1500 miles a month) so we have been on bikes as much as possible. We have gone through 5 bikes in the last week. We have had a crazy string of problems, like bikes breaking, tires flatt, etc. I got bit by a dog (but it didn't really break the skin) and Sister Glenn almost got run over by a cop (Sister Glenn had the right of way and the cop was turning left and didn't see her till it was almost too late), so it has been a great crazy week.

In my studies I have continued to try and gain a better understanding of the Atonement and also how I can teach the principles more simply, seeing as we are teaching a 9 yr old son of a becoming-active family. I am also reading out of the New Testament and just finished the Gospels. From reading the gospels I have strengthened my testimony in the importance of obedience and how the commandments show God's love for us. In the Book of Mormon I was reading Alma 12 today and something from it really stuck out. Alma is talking to Zeezrom after he starts to be curious about the gospel and in verse 9-10 warns him. Before I never understood why those verses were there until I was studying and thinking about several investigators we have. They are curious about the gospel and some even have desires to have a knowledge of the gospel, but they haven't taken the steps to act on that. They have not given "heed and dilligence" to it. I couldn't have the knowledge of the gospel that I have without my obedience and dilligence to the gospel. So many people want to "know" the truth, but unless they are willing to act on the truth the Lord won't give it to them. I know that as I am better able to soften my heart and be more humble the Lord will be able to bless me with the wisdom and knowledge that I love to learn about.

I know that this gospel is true and I know that God wants all his children to know about it. I know he wants to grant our righteous desires and is just waiting for us to take those steps to come unto him.
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson

18 Oct 2010

Hey Mom and Family, etc!
Here are some pics! The second two are of my new companion, Sister Glenn, and me. The first and the last were taken during transfers. In the last photo, Sister Goodell, my first companion, is the one on the bottom row with the green shirt and gray sweater.

First I'll answer my mom's questions:

1.Did you feel the earthquake last Wednesday? I did not feel the earthquake, but my companion and many other people in the area did. I guess I was just distracted because transfers were that day and I was a little nervous to be getting a new companion and going to a new area.

2. So how is your new area? My new area is really big geographically, but really small population wise. Woodward is where our apartment is and there is a small branch with a very small building, probably 1/10 of the stake center. We also drive out to several other small towns, like Seiling and teach people there once a week. This area is a lot different and has other challenges. It's hard to have investigators that you can only see once a week, it's hard to resolve their concerns and keep in touch with them enough. We drive a lot here. We have district meetings every friday and it takes a 1.5 hour drive to get there. It is a 3hr drive down to Oklahoma City, which we will be going to this wednesday for a Mission Conference with Elder Zwick. I'm for sure not used to a small town, but I like it so far.

3. Who is your new companion?
My new companion is Sister Vanessa Glenn. She is from a small town in Wyoming and went to school at Sothern Utah University in Cedar City. She is a special education major as well, but at SUU to do that you have to double major in Special Ed and Elementary Ed, so she finished her El ED classes and then was prompted to come out on a mission.

4. How did you make the transfer? Plane? Train? Submarine? LOL! Bus???
Actually it was by tractor...lol. If either sister is being transfered in a companion ship we drive down to the Moore Stake Center, south about 30min from OKC. Everyone that is changing companions in the mission meets there and we get to talk to people for about 30min-1hr and then we all head off our seperate ways. Then Sister Glenn and I had a 3hr trip home. She is really fun to talk to and we discovered we have a lot of things in common.

5. What does a sister missionary in Oklahoma want for Christmas? Music! (Handel's messiah, classical music, Josh Groban's Christmas CD) it could just be a copy of the music you guys already have at home, Gum/Mints/Dark Chocolate,Christmas and any other fun stickers. Pictures of you guys! Stamps, Labels with my Oklahoma address (so I don't have to write it all the time) Pictures of Christ or other religious things to put up in my apartment/decorate stuff. A lot of missionaries decorate their planners with cut our pictures. Pictures are fun to paste into journals and letters, etc.

So our mission president asked us to more deeply study the Atonement and find a deeper connection with it in our personal lives. As I have learned and been taught, the more fully one understands the Atonement the more of a desire one has to bring others to Christ. So I started this and I have about 50bizillion thoughts about it rolling around my head. Basically what my studies yesterday boiled down to was that to understand and rely on the the Atonement I need to have faith. Faith that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have the power to work with my imperfections and frailties, and have the ability, through my humilty to eventually shape me into a complete and perfect person.

In companion study we were talking about how as missionaries we have a lot of responsibility and sometimes that can seem intimidating and can make it clear how weak we really are. But we know that the Lord uses the weak to confound the wise and that our weakness can be made into strengths through the Lord. Sister Glenn shared her testimony with me that she knows that Heavenly Father called her to this work, and that he knew her and the mistakes and weaknesses she had, and he still called her to be a missionary. I took a lot of strenght from that. I too know that the Lord has called me to be a missionary. I have full confidence that the Lord knows me, my strengths and my weaknesses and that with knowing that he called me to be his representitive.

Last night as I was praying I was thinking about my calling as a missionary and my own doubts about being sufficient for the task and a thought came to me. If the enemies of the Lord, people working against his purposes and Satan himself can't frustrate or impeed the Lord's work then surely I as a witness of him and working for him wouldn't be able to impeed his work. That may sound odd, but it gave me a lot of comfort.

I know that the Lord loves all of us. I know that the atonement is what will allow us to give up our unrightous desires and be comfortable in the Lord's presence. I know that I am changing for the better as I am more dedicated to his work and as trying to be a better tool in his hands. I know that all of the commandents aren't to restrict us but they are to form us so that it becomes a natural progression for us to be able to use the powers of God. I especially like D&C 121:45-46, "Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon they soul as the dews of heaven. And the Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter and unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."

I also really enjoyed Romans 8:31-39. It has given me a lot to ponder. I know that nothing except our own choices seperates us from God and that his love is always there.

Thanks to everyone for the Facebook Birthday wishes! (Surprise, My mom emailed them to me :) )

You can all email me at lila.jenson@myldsmail.net but I can only email my family, so I'll write anyone else snailmail letters!

Love,

Sister Lila Jenson

12 October 2010

Hi Folks,
I’ll begin with addressing my mom’s question: I have no idea how many baptisms this mission gets every month, but I can ask. We have three people that we have been teaching since I was here and it looks like they are going to get baptized in the next month. We have nine people with baptismal dates currently, but since we ask people to be baptized in the first lesson, many of those are new.

I had a good birthday. I opened everything in the package when I got it, except for the card, about a week before my birthday. And I loved everything :) Thank you so much for the clothes and earrings and the beautiful necklace (it's a lot of fun). I've also had several people send me CD's which has been awesome.

Oh, I"M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!!! I'm going to Woodward, OK on Wednesday. We found out Sunday night and for the last week Sister Goodell was convinced that she was leaving and going to Woodward, because she has been in this area for 7.5 months. But it turns out I'm going there instead. I have loved serving with Sister Goodell and it's crazy to be leaving all these people that we have been teaching. But Sister Goodell promises to keep me updated about how they do.

OK to get back to my birthday... it went like this:
• study,
• clean park,
• lunch with some of the Elders near us,
• stopping by less active members who weren't home,
• tracting a trailer home, and teaching a few people on the doorstep,
• going to an appointment and teaching,
• more tracting, (We accidently let someone's dogs out into the street and they had to be chased down, oops)
• Yummy Papa Murphy's pizza and chocolate cake at our ward mission leaders house,
• more tracting.

BTW, there are some creepy amazing Halloween looking spiders around here. We have almost run into several.

I did bake the Cherry pie (mom sent), yesterday after I found out I was going to be leaving.

Mom, I'm glad you're putting the Elders to work, lol. I'm sure they love the excuse to change out of proselyting clothes and have something to fill up their morning.
We have gotten cards for those “…and I’m a Mormon” ads, several different ones. I have some papers I have to send you so I'll send you a few of the new pass along cards if you want.

Hey Sarah--getting a job during school can be really good. I would not to do an early morning job though--it kills your social life.

Sounds like you guys are getting a LOT done to get ready to move etc, that’s a lot of work. Good Job!!

We have a GA coming to talk with our mission later this month. He is going to meet with half of the mission at a time. Apparently it is a policy that the entire mission doesn't meet together all at once except for unusual circumstances.

So I think that every leader in the church should read chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel. It's about how we are supposed to work with ward and stake leaders. I think everybody is still working out how missionaries and church leaders are supposed to work together to fellowship investigators and get them integrated into the ward. It is so helpful when we have people who are willing to go and teach lessons with us, because investigators can have an example of what a member of the church looks and acts like and often feel more comfortable making the leap to coming to church when they know they will know someone. Also the members are able to share their testimony and that is very important. We are told that every member is a missionary and other then finding people for the missionaries to teach, one really important way members can do that is be willing to go out teaching with the missionaries.

In my personal study I have been color coding and marking my scriptures in relation to the five lessons in PMG (Preach My Gospel). It is really helpful in finding scriptures that I want because they have a little labeled tab sticking out at the bottom colored with the corresponding color of the lesson. I got the idea from Sister Goodell who has the same thing. It makes me smile to look at my scriptures now. :D

It has been amazing to see how much I am learning when I have a purpose for that knowledge. In the last week I have studied the Priesthood a lot because we have a couple we are teaching who see the Priesthood as something existing in the Old Testament and being part of the old law and covenant and they don't see it pertaining to the New Testament or see the necessity of it today. There is a lot in Hebrews and Alma 13 that is really cool that I had no idea about before. It is interesting to see that people have such a different perception of the Old Testament and New Testament then I do. They have more connections and relations as I view them in a timeline spanning from pre-existence to Christ's time, to eternity.

I have begun to see how much this mission is not "my mission" but the Lord's mission. I am starting to see how much this is not about me at all. I realize that being more focused on the needs of those I am teaching and worrying less about myself and my imperfections will help me to grow more than focusing on myself. It's an interesting paradox but I know that as I lose myself and go to work that I will be able to gain my life by losing it.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Sister Lila Jenson

4 Oct 2010 Letter from Lila

Funny Times in Hokey Oke
Hi Everyone!
So this week I've had several fun and new experiences, and a few hilarious ones too.This week I threw a football for the first time!

So I have a wimpy arm, but it was fun, and I think I could get better at it. My opinion is that footballs are very oddly shaped. I don't get how people can throw them so smoothly through the air.

I extended my first baptismal commitment. I am so glad that we practiced saying those words so many times at the MTC, because otherwise I would have totally messed up. I was so scared to ask, but he said yes, and guess what? He's practically the only person in Oklahoma who hasn't gotten baptized before! He's studied the Bible and knows he has to get baptized, but hasn't yet. So this will be his first and only baptism that he'll need :)

Ok, so we went to check on this investigator. (We're supposed to have daily contact with all investigators and her phone isn't working) So we knock on her door and her family says that she is around back, so we go over and there is a medium size bonfire and she has a can of gasoline in her hand. Guess what she was burning....Her boyfriends PORN!!! LOL. She was rather annoyed about it because apparently the girls were just barely 18 and she has a daughter who is 12 and when she saw it all she could think about was her daughter and how soon she'll be 18. So she called him a pervert, and he told her just to throw it in the trash, (which he had already pulled it out of the trash before) but she said no, she was going to burn it! So she was, she is a hard core opinionated lady. Sister Goodell and I were laughing about it and how that was a pretty awesome thing to witness to.

I'm getting better at talking on the phone :) We have to make a lot of calls, to follow up with investigators, coordinate with the ward and get rides for our investigators for church, and Sister Goodell is the one assigned to drive, so I have to make a lot of them. Anyway, it's still hard to talk to people I don't know very well on the phone, but I'm getting better. This week in talking to one of the members of the ward here I realized that I don't want my fear (of any one thing) to prevent me from doing the Lord's work. There is no way that I would allow my nervousness to talk on the phone to stop me from doing missionary work, or when I get home, visiting teaching, or anything else. I resolved that even if I am afraid to do something, if the Lord wills it, then I will do it.

I hope I am growing in humilty, I catch myself being prideful, but then I just bop that gopher of pride on the head and try and be humble.

One thing that really struck me from General Conference was the talk on gratitude. For a while I have been wondering how to live more in the moment. I am constantly planning ahead and I find myself thinking, oh I can't wait till this day, or P-day, or whatever, and I don't want any day to pass me by while my head is stuck in the future. So listening to this talk I realized that if I am grateful and learn to constantly recognize the things I am grateful for I will live more in the moment. I don't want this mission to pass me by, I want to enjoy every day of it!

I continue to be grateful for the commandments. Today as I was reading in Preach My Gospel in The Plan of Salvation, about The Fall of Adam and Eve I realized something new about Agency. PMG said that God gave Adam and Eve agency in the garden of Eden. But I was confused because I know that we all had agency in premortal life and that is how we choose God's Plan. 2 Nephi 2:16 ( I think) talks about how man can't choose unless he is enticed by either side. The next line in PMG is about the Lord giving them commandments and I realized that God giving us commandments allows us to have agency. We have to be able to have choices in order to chose and giving us commandments allows us to choose to keep or break those commandments. Satan wanted to not give us agency and he could have done that by just not setting any expectations or commandments. Anyway, agency is amazing and I'm learning a lot.

I know that this gospel is true and that it helps us so much in our lives. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that it is only through His enabling power and grace that we can have hope and peace in our lives. I know that his gospel has been restored through a living prophet and that God is leading us today through him.

Sister Lila Jenson

27 Sept 2010 Letter from Lila

Dear Family and Friends,
I am so grateful that I know that I can receive guidance from the Lord and that I realize that His way really is better than my way.
Our mission president stresses all the time not to rely on "the arm of flesh" In the last few months I have realized that I know so little compared to Heavenly Father, and that things work out a lot better when I seek and take His guidance than when I try to rely on myself. I really have seen the Lord give me a witness after the trial of my faith. It is only after I act on what I know to do that I see why things happen.
I'm so glad you found a great house and that you were able to feel the Spirit confirming to you that it is the right house. One of the things I am learning out on a mission is to pray for things specifically. I don't think I was horrible at saying a morning and evening prayer but now I am praying for people and their problems specifically and I feel much more power in that. I've realized how much the Lord really is just waiting for us to ask.
Another amazing thing is that as a missionary we have the authority and power to promise specific blessings to people. For example, we are teaching this 60 year old guy, LeRoy, who hasn't come to church because of family problems. As inspired by the Spirit we can promise him specifically that if he comes to church he will have the strength to deal with family issues and that the hearts of his family will be softened. I was thinking about that last night as we were discussing with another member how we might be able to help him. Teaching people is a lot of responsibility, but I think it is also really amazing and a privilege to be able to promise them blessings. We are told in Preach My Gospel and by our leaders that the Lord will honor the promises that we make to people. ISN’T THAT SOO COOOL!!!!!
Ok, business/temporal stuff:
The email policy for this mission is that anyone can email me, but I can only email family. But I check email before I write letters, so if people want to email me that would be fine. Though, of course, mail is always super amazing!
If anyone wants to send me a package or stuff, I would love music. Any classical music, any church music (though I have a lot of pre-2002 Especially for Youth music). I would actually love some Enya music. And I can listen to any Christmas music.
Ok for News:
So just, btw, BYU has lost all four of their football games, which I am pretty bummed about, not really, but sort of. Sister Goodell is a U of U fan so she likes to rub that in my face. Oklahoma is WAYYYY into football. The main rivalry around here is Oklahoma University (OU) verses Oklahoma State University (OSU). But they also are also into NFL and high school football. So tracting here in the evening is a little harder, because people are either at a game, or watching the game and annoyed that we have interrupted them. There is some sort of football going on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, (And Tuesday is Junior High) So that's pretty crazy.
I'm so excited for General Conference!!! Here it's 11 am-1 pm and 1-3 pm.
Oh, so last week I was down in South OKC with Sister Holly, Sister Davey, and Sister Grant (my MTC companion) I was there all day Tuesday-Friday. It was interesting to see how other people teach, work, and tract. Sister Holly is 4'11 and from just south of Seattle, next transfer she goes home, and it was way fun to work with her. Sister Davey is like 5'2, Sister Grant is 5'7 so it was funny, Sister Grant and I were the tall missionaries and Sister Davey and Holly were the short ones. I discovered it is really weird to try and teach someone with 4 missionaries. With 2 it is easy to switch back and forth, but with four we were constantly interrupting each other and all had different ideas of where to take the lesson next. The commandment to teach 2x2 really makes sense now. (Though it always takes time getting used to teaching with someone new and none of us had taught together)
So the reason that I went to the south is that Sister Goodell, the other trainers, DL, and ZL were in training. The learned the 8 new missionary lessons that are about how we as missionaries are supposed to teach, it's what's going to be taught at the MTC coming up. They are all about how to better use the Spirit and how to get out of the way of what the Spirit wants to testify of. The way we plan before we teach, the way we teach, and the way we follow up are all changing. It's great because some of this I was taught at the MTC, and it was a great foundation for all the changes that are being made. It's no more going through the motions of teaching, but really receiving guidance from the Spirit as you teach.
We got 2 investigators to church!!! Yay!!! Out here people will say they'll get baptized but getting them to church is harder. But in the next week, everyday, we are going to ask everyone we teach, if they are planning on coming to church, and what they’re doing so that they can come.
Over the last week we have seen a lot of people put other things over finding God, whether that is family, personal problems or whatever. People seem to think that they need to solve their own personal problems or turmoil before they can seek God or church--which is completely what the world tells people, to set out time for themselves before anyone else. People are soo deceived. They don't see that putting God first will really help them. All changes in our lives for the better are through obedience and through the grace and enabling power of the Atonement. Satan is good at getting people to put off seeking God, and putting extra criteria on that journey. We don't need to fix ourselves before we seek for God. I have started to see daily the false traps tactics that Satan uses. People really are deceived by the precepts of men. As I see these things in others I realize that I need to carefully inspect my own life as well. I can't think that I must be a better person, scholar, teacher, whatever before I ask the Lord for help. I know that whatever problem people are facing, turning to face God will improve their lives. I came across a scripture a few days ago that really got me thinking about this. It's at the end of Matthew 11. It says something like, "all ye that are heavy laden, take my yoke upon you, for my burden is easy and my load is light" I realized that the Lord isn't telling us to give him our problems. We are to take "his yoke upon us". As missionaries we are to take the Lord's purpose on us, specifically to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I know that as I take this yoke upon me, that whatever other burdens I am carrying or worried about, will either take care of themselves or I will be able to accomplish them. But I also know that this scripture applies to everyone, once we become more one with Christ and his purpose, our loads will become lighter.
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson

20 Sept 2010 Letter from Lila

Another Week in Oklahoma!

So I have a few random stories to tell.

For exercise, we walk over to a neighborhood and walk/run on a looped street. So one day as we were crossing the street over to the neighborhood, at about 6:40, a school bus comes up, and a little further down were high school kids waiting for the bus. But the bus stopped for us, two girls in exercise clothes without back packs. It was pretty funny.

On Friday we went on splits, which was a new experience. I went with another couple from the ward to go visit a recent convert named Christine. It went alright, but I'm glad I was with the Mission leader and his wife because they had really good things to say. We met back up at an investigator’s house to give her a blessing of healing, and while we were there her nephew wanted a blessing for his "babymama" (the single mother of his child). We teach a lot in poorer areas of town and that is a very common term here. After the blessing for our investigator, we said that we would put her (the nephew's babymama) name on the prayer roll of the temple but that we could say a prayer for her before we left. So our ward mission leader was kind of choking on the term, but he said it during the prayer, which was pretty funny. (He had asked for her name, but I think he forgot it during the prayer). We've also taught a schizophrenic and some other interesting people. My companion has no fear about talking to or teaching anyone--it's been interesting, but good.

So Oklahoma is infested with flies and mosquitoes. Plus I think one of our investigator's dogs has the fleas. So basically, along with my beautiful bruises, I also look like I have the chicken pox. Sister Goodell says soon it will get colder so they'll be gone and that after a while they stop biting you as much, I really hope she's right.

Ok, so on to more spiritual matters. We had an amazing "greenie" meeting on Wednesday. It was a meeting with all the new missionaries and their trainers and it was wonderful to see Sister Grant and Elder Olsen from my MTC district. President Taylor talked about connecting to our purpose as missionaries and we do that through exact obedience and feeling the spirit, and not relying on the arm of flesh. President Taylor refers to the arm of flesh by wiggling his arm floppily-- it's pretty funny. We talked about the importance of planning and that through planning and "real playing" we can receive inspiration about those we are teaching. “Real playing” is one companion taking on the role of the investigator, and through prayer asking for revelation, and the other companion teaching them. It's hard but I can see that it will really be helpful.

This week we were teaching Rashad (the one with the babymama that we prayed for) And after saying he would be baptized, he told us the next day that he was saying that only to be nice and that he wasn't interested in finding a church right now. When he said that I had this deep sadness. He told us about how he was trying to pull his life together (people in Oklahoma have no problem telling their life stories to complete strangers) and I knew without a doubt of the love the Lord had for him. That the Lord wanted so much for this man to see what was in front of him and take it so that the Lord could more fully bless his life. We were able to talk about his concerns about the Book of Mormon and the church in general and he agreed to read from the Book of Mormon. There are so many things that I can't empathize with and that I don't have the answers to. But I have learned coming here that the gospel really is the answer to any problem. After getting done talking with him, Sister Goodell said, "That was exhausting, this listening and resolving concerns thing is hard." Apparently the mission has changed a lot since she got here. She said that missionary work used to just be about going through the motions, and that if people had concerns, that the attitude was, "well I guess they're just not prepared." I and the new mission president were trained and taught completely differently. The stress is "teach people, not lessons" which is wonderful and I know that attitude will help me a lot to reach people.

I love Preach My Gospel, and it is a wonderful tool. I am learning a lot. I started writing down questions people have that I have a hard time answering and I am finding the answers in the Book of Mormon as part of my study.

Oh, all this week my companion will be at day- long training meetings and I will be in a "tripanionship" with Sisters in southern Oklahoma City, from 8am-5pm Tuesday-Friday. That will be interesting and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from seeing the different ways people teach and contact.

Love all ya'll !!!
Sister Lila Jenson

September 13 Letter from OK

September 13, 2010
Mom, Dad, Family, Friends, Romans, Countryman, etc, lol

In Oklahoma I have tracted into several people who try and convert us, or more like "save" us. We talked to one lady for about 40min who had been part of some Christian Cult and had this deep sense of pity for us. As she talked about what she believed, I felt most of it was true and things that I have had my own witness of the Spirit of. She gave us this little pamphlet and asked us to read and pray about it, which we said we would in exchange for her reading and praying about The Book of Mormon. I think it is interesting that people have this pity and concern for our souls. I read the Bible, I know that Christ is my Savior, and I pray to Heavenly Father many, many times a day. People are so blinded by Satan. They do have a lot of truth but they can't see that there is more out there, that the Lord wants to bless them so much.

Talking to someone yesterday, Sister Goodell asked how he had accepted Christ into his life, and he replied, "through a simple prayer" and asked us if we had accepted Christ into our lives and we said of course, that we pray every day and that we know that it is through Christ that we are saved. It made me wonder, if all we had to do is say a simple prayer, why would the Lord give us commandments? I have come to see that commandments really are a blessing from the Lord. He knows us, he created us, so he obviously knows what is best for us in our lives. How can people balance the idea that all they have to do is say a prayer once, with the commandments that Christ and Heavenly Father have given throughout the history of man?

Thanks so much for the package--it came on September 9th. I love the food you sent, those bar things are yummy--they're already gone :) I made up some gnocchi yesterday for lunch and it was yummy too. Thanks so much for my shoes and blouse, I love them! When I came out, Sister Goodell was like, "You have such cute clothes, I want cute clothes!" So we are going out shopping today to get clothes that fit the new standards for sister missionaries, i.e. the only rules are that we dress professionally and femininely and not casually, and that skirts cover the knee when we are sitting. No rules about what color or dark or light or anything!

Oh, it was Sister Goodell's year mark on the 9th so we burned a skirt this week while we were visiting at a recently activated member’s home. (Sister Goodell is really good friends with them.)

Yesterday at dinner we were talking to a Sister who had gone on a mission about what we can do to involve the members in missionary work, because Sister Goodell has tried to ask for member referrals and doesn't feel it works very well out here. So what we are going to do is to ask the members (when we go over to dinner at their house) to pray for missionary experiences in every one of their prayers throughout the next week and tell us how it's going/went at church on Sunday. That way, members will start to have the spirit of missionary work, even if they don't have referrals or people for us to teach. We are also thinking of setting up more splits with the Young Women or sisters from the ward. We are supposed to be teaching 20 lessons a week, finding new people to teach, all while having daily contact with our investigators. And it's hard to balance all that when we can only go 25 miles in our car each day and we have really flaky investigators.

Oh! I wanted to tell you. We tracted yesterday in a neighborhood next to the Church of the Nazerene University and I realized something. We were tracting in the Nazerene Provo! At BYU I would see Jehovah Witnesses tracting and handing out flyers just south of campus where I lived and I was like, really? Why would you tract here? But I totally did that yesterday. It was pretty funny! :)

This week we taught someone that had requested a copy of The Book of Mormon, a very knowledgeable old farmer who had been through a lot and had studied a lot. He seemed very interested in what we had to say and we taught him The Restoration. But as soon as we asked him to do something about it (pray to know it's true, and be baptized after he found out it was true) he immediately started making excuses about his eyes being bad and not being able to read, etc. It was interesting to see the shift, from very interested, to polite, because we asked him to do something about what we taught. He was a very nice man, but it was sad to see the unwillingness to "experiment upon the word.”

Oh, it was funny, for dinner on Friday a member took us to Pizza Hut and it was weird hearing all the music I love and being surrounded by TV's, of course it was sports, which I don't care about. As I sat there listening to the music, I was like, "Oh that's right, I had a life where I listened to music like this!" Funny how quickly I forget. But our mission president hasn't given us any specific rules about music, just that it should bring the spirit, etc. So we listen to church music, classical music, and we are allowed to listen to gospel music, just not gospel rock. In fact my companion has a CD of a piano/classical arrangement of coldplay songs which is really great to listen too. But as I was sitting there at Pizza Hut I realized how the rules really are for my benefit. I haven't missed the music too much and I realized how easily my emotions are swayed by music and if I were still listening to typical music I don't think the Spirit would be able to guide me as well.

All in all I love being here and being a missionary. It's great to hear from you all and I love you all!!!

Love,
Sister Lila Jenson

Lila's First Letter from Oklahoma!

We weren't sure we'd get a letter from Lila this week since the missionaries depend on the libraries for their emailing, and yesterday they were closed. I had send her an email with several questions for her to answer.
BTW, "P-day" = Preparation day--the only day a missionary has to write letters, do laundry, shop for food etc.

Dear Mom, Dad, and family and friends,

Below are my answers to your questions.
(Oh btw, my P-day is Monday but it was a holiday yesterday so we are at the library emailing today.)
1.Who is your companion and what is she like? My companion is Sister Goodell. She is very friendly, has red curly hair, is from North Salt Lake. She is a little blunt at times, but she is really helping me to be more bold and confident in what I am saying. She has been in OK for a year, as of Thursday.

2.Where are you located? I am serving in the Oklahoma City 1st ward, which is in Northwest Oklahoma City.

3. Are you healthy? I am. :) I'm eating rather healthy and I'm not really worried about that. In fact, all this week we are going to be on bikes because we had to take our car in yesterday because they wanted to repair some dents on the top of our car. Apparently some elders decided to get on top of the car and take pictures (that is the story anyway, we don't know what actually happened).

Anyway, I have bought healthy food, and stuff for salads.

4.How are you finding people to teach? Referrals? Tracting? We have about 10 investigators, currently 7 with a baptism date. Out here they are stressing a lot inviting people to be baptized after the first lesson. There are so many churches out here and many people have been baptized several times, so they are perfectly fine saying OK to baptism, but it's harder to get people to keep other commitments like being there for appointments and coming to church. Many people we teach are in the lower economic status which means they are humble, but often they are also rather flaky. We do a lot of tracting though also--often about 3 hours a day. We also teach lessons to a few recent converts and some less active members.

I'm getting a lot better at tracting. When we go tracting we use pass-along cards. For example with The Book of Mormon pass-along card we might say something like, "Hello, how are you? We're the Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we are handing out a card for a free copy of the BoM. Have you ever heard of the BoM? Well the BoM is another testament of Jesus Christ and it is scripture just like the Bible. It contains the words of prophets just like Noah or Moses, but prophets in the Americas. The BoM shows that God loves all his people and gives his word to everyone, not just those living in Jerusalem.....”
We also use cards for the Bible, though everyone here has one, Finding Faith in Christ, 3 Ways to a Happier family (a booklet), a card with temples on it for the Website, and one other I can't remember. Apparently we are going to be getting new cards in the next few weeks/months that go along with the ad campaign, which would be cool.

Sister Goodell and I are going to work on asking for more referrals; apparently we are supposed to ask everyone we talk to for a referral. So this week we are going to work on that. Another companionship goal of ours is to be more on time. I'm not wonderful at being on time, but Sister Goodell has an even harder time of that then I do.

OK, so for other non-question related stuff. Guess what? I am going to be going to the Church of Christ on Wednesday night. We talked to someone and they said they would go to our church if we went to theirs. I'm actually really surprised that Sister Goodell said yes, but she has been to several other churches while she has been here. We'll also be taking a member with us when we go. Sister Goodell was like "We're going to be eaten alive" with this beaming smile on her face and I was like "Why are you so excited about that?" and she responded that we have the truth so there's nothing they can really do to us. Which is true, but still.

I saw my first Oklahoma storm on Thursday and it was pretty amazing. I like where I live, I've been learning a lot. One of the investigators we are teaching is a 23 year old college student with a 2 year old son that started investigating the church after her Mormon boyfriend broke up with her. She quit smoking and started dressing modestly on her own without the missionaries telling her anything. She has a baptism date scheduled for next Saturday but it will probably be postponed. She struggles with alcohol and a little depression. She called us on Sunday night and said that she didn't want us to call her back and didn't want to speak to anyone from church again. She and Sister Goodell have become really good friends and Sister Goodell was really hurt by that. But she called back the next morning apologized and said that she just didn't feel ready to be baptized. She went to a different ward for church and we told the missionaries to look out for her, but she left after about 30min because her son was being very loud. She also said that she will be busy with work all week, and we're going to meet with her on Saturday afternoon, but Sister Goodell is worried that her saying she is busy means she's blowing us off.

A lot of our investigators have said they will be baptized but we are having the hardest time getting them to church. We had nobody at church this week. Four of them were out of town, two of them were sick and we couldn't get in contact with the rest of them (i.e. they wouldn't answer their phones and didn't answer when we stopped by their house)

I've really enjoyed my study of The Book of Mormon recently. I've started reading it again, just going straight through, and I have learned so much and gained so many more insights. I'm sure the Holy Ghost has been with me as I study because I know that I'm not that smart on my own. For example I was thinking about how Nephi prayed to God about his father's decision to leave Jerusalem and it says that the Lord humbled him. I'm pretty sure he wasn't too excited about the idea just like Lamen and Lemuel. But he went to the Lord; he was willing to ask God if it was his will. So the Lord was able to soften his heart and go along with it even though I'm sure he hated the idea at the beginning. Reading this just gave me comfort that we can all be mad or frustrated or worried, or have all these emotions, but the real important thing is how we handle them and what we do with them. Nephi turned to the Lord and was comforted, whereas Lamen and Lemuel just complained. I know that as I submit my will to the Father I too will be comforted. Especially when tracting sounds like the worst thing on the planet.

It is kind of nice to not have to deal with lots of financial/temporal stuff. Though I've been realizing that so much time on a mission is taken up trying to find people to teach, eating/cooking, driving places, making phone calls, etc. It reminds me of something Richard Anderson said about special education teaching--that the awesome 10% was teaching and the other 90% was red tape and dealing with other people like staff and parents. In some ways a mission is the same: planning tracting, traveling, eating, studying--all take up a lot of time. And the actual hours we spend teaching aren't anywhere near to what I thought it would be. But it's hard when people don't show up to appointments, etc. And especially this week. I see why the church wants as many cars as possible even though they are more expensive. It saves us so much time. Getting places it going to take like 5x as long, at least.

I love you all very much! I know that what I'm doing is the Lord's will, and I know that I will and need to do everything I can in order to have the Spirit with me so that I can be guided. I know that as I am obedient and do all that I can to study, etc, that the Lord will strengthen me and that I will be able to succeed despite all my short falls.
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson

More pics from MTC

August 31 Lila flies to OK

Lila was able to call me from the airport on Tuesday morning, August 31st. We talked for over 30 minutes, mostly about her Dad's new job in Kennewick and our upcoming move as well as missionary work. However, she also told me that they had changed the policies for sister's attire and could I please send her "pointy-toed black flats" and a blouse she had left. Those items, plus some goodies were in a care package and sent within a few days.

She was flying with her companion, Sister Grant, another Elder from her district and 5 other Spanish-speaking Elders.

Lila's First Email from the MTC

Here is an excerpt from her first email to her family. Looks like her schedule is packed! One thing is definitely different--they get a lot more exercise than we did when I was in the MTC! We only got gym on two nights of the week. No wonder my clothes got tight!

Hi Everyone,
How to sum up an entire week of amazing new experiences and changes in my remaining 25 minutes of email time...
First day was a whirl. I have a great companion, Sister Grant, and two other amazing roommates: Sister O'Neil and Sister Greenwell. I love the Elders in my district as well--they really are a great bunch of Elders (we're not supposed to say "guys" or "girls", etc while at the MTC). I don't have a cord to connect my camera to the computer but I'll be printing some pictures out and sending them.
Anyway, I love it here at the MTC. It's a lot of studying, but I am used to studying and I definitely feel that my Spiritual Capacity and endurance is much higher than it used to be. I am growing so much and learning so much. I know that's general but it's true.
So a typical day:
5:50 Wake up, get dressed for exercise
6:00 Sisters Only exercise class (each day is something different, like Pilates, yoga, kickboxing, etc)
6:30 Shower and get ready
7:00 Personal Study
7:30 Breakfast
8:00 - 12:00 MDT (Missionary Directed Time) or Class
12-12:45 Lunch
12:45 Prepare for Gym
1:00 Gym (either outside on the field next to the temple or on an elliptical/bike indoors)
1:50 Shower, get ready
2:30-5:00 MDT or Class
5:00 Dinner
5:45- 9pm MDT or Class
9-9:30 Planning for the next day
9:30 - 10:30 Go back to the residence, change, pick up room, iron clothes, write in journal, talk to companion and roommates, go to bed

On Tuesday we had a devotional in the evening, and on Tuesday and Friday we teach an "investigator" at the TRC (Teaching Resource Center). Thursday is P-day, so this morning we got to go up to the Temple and do an Endowment session. We also have Large Group Meetings where they discuss gospel topics. Generally we have two class periods a day, and one block of MDT. So, during MDT we have 1 hour of personal study and 1 hour of companionship study, and whatever else we can plan. I have two wonderful teachers: Brother Peterson, who is my age, lol, and Sister Ward. All the teachers here have served missions and Sister Ward served in the ghettos of Chicago and Brother Peterson served in Independence Missouri. Brother Peterson always stresses teaching by the scriptures and whenever we aks him a quiestion, his response is "Well, if you'll open your scriptures to..." Sister Ward has some amazing experiences that she shares about the people she met and helps us understand how to relate to people.
Here at the MTC it's really cool to study outside because missionaries learning all different languages come up and bear their testimonies or practice contacting people. Sister Grant and I have also made a goal to go up to several companionships a day and either bear our testimony or share a scripture.
I'm going to share an excerpt from my journal for August 16:
"We had a wonderful group meeting about challenging people to baptism the first time, or soon after we meet them. We talked about how the first doctrine Christ taught to the Nephites was about Baptism. i could really actually see myself doing that sometime. I always thought that inviting people to baptism the first time you meet them was ridiculous but now I can really see the merit. And if they say no, you are able to learn right away what their concerns are...This evening we did a lot of singing as a district and it is just so amazing to hear the Elders sing. There really is a special spirit to music and the hymns."

Love,
Sister Lila Jenson

Addresses

I report to the MTC Wednesday August 11, 2010 and I am going off to the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission. I will be serving there for the next 18 months and will return in February of 2012. I would love to hear from all of you and here is where you can reach me.

Till the end of August:

Sister Lila Whitney Jenson
MTC Mailbox # 232
OK-OKL 0831
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

From Sept 2010-Feb 2012:

Sister Lila Jenson
Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission
416 SW 79th St. Ste. 210
Oklahoma City OK 73139-8121

My mom will be maintaining this blog and posting pictures and letters from the field.