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
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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
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
Monday, September 6, 2010
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.
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