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