July 12, 2010

How are all of you doing?!?!? You are always in my thoughts and my prayers and I am hoping that each and every one of you is happy and living this life to it's fullest (which can only be done through our Savior).

This week has been awesome and hard in some ways. Good thing that last week was the bomb diggity because the amazingness of it could carry me through the eternities, I am thinking. Things really have not been bad at all really, but we keep tracting and looking and we are not really finding anyone golden to teach and everyone is somewhat flo-jo about the Gospel. However, that is NOT the case with my wonderful Familia Perdoma! Liliana and her 3 sons are rocking the world still! They just keep growing in the gospel and I love to visit them and teach them, and feel of their spirits. It is truly a miraculous treat!

Also, it was fun this week to go and visit some of the ward members. The barrio (ward) in this area is sensational! I love them and they are so much fun! It was a treat to watch some clips from a ward party back in Feb. where one of the ward members showed us at their house really quick after dinner one day. They have so much fun and they are really like a family here. It is not like wards in Salt Lake where there are so many people that you are just acquaintances with most of them.... these people are in many ways all each other has, because their familieas are all in their respective countries. The church has a beautiful way a uniting people. I love it.

And also this week I was able to meet the new mission president and his wife and they are AMAZING!!!!!!! HE is the typical coach to the max! His talks and interviews and everything are super inspirational! He uses all kinds of sports metaphors while he is talking and I love it! It reminds me of Dad! And his amazing motivational speeches that he has always given me! Yes, I love him and his wife so much! They are going to let us possibly go to the PGA Tour when they come through Tampa! That would be super awesome! And he is going to set up things for us to hear the pro golfers talk who are members of the church...so that should be awesome too!

Sister Summerhays is a gem. We really connected and I connected with President Summerhays too. Sister Summerhays and I met and at the end she said that when she looks into my eyes she sees the pureness of my desires and my large desire to be a great missionary and be a disciple of Christ. It made me cry and I love her so much. Also, while President was talking I thought a lot back to high school and the drill team that I was a part of... I know that this was long ago, but I feel that the words of Pres. Stringham when he said that my mission will help to put together the random pieces of my life into a beautiful tapestry that is wonderful, is coming to pass. I feel that I needed to be a part of that drill team to better connect with my President. Pretty soon here, I am going to be one of the older sister in our mission..... next transfer we have 5 spanish sisters leaving. It is crazy, but I have been thinking a lot about things that I am going to do to help inspire and uplift others comps. I love the mission and I love life! This rocks it!

The bed bug situation is still a problem for me. I know I need to not focus on it, and that causes me more stress.....I think that we have a handle on it....I am just still finding bites, so that stinks, who knows, maybe they are not bed bug bites, but I can't be sure.

I love you all so much! You are everything to me. Good luck Danny with the mission papers! I am praying for you! I am super excited for you! I love you all so so so much! Write me!

Jenna

July 6, 2010

My Dear Family,

This week has been the most awesome week EVER! I am so happy and I am so thrilled to be writing to you!

Last Monday Liliana told us that her and her sons did not want to be baptized this last weekend, and we were heartbroken. We went home and cried and prayed and looked for bed bugs and killed them to get our anger and sadness out. Then we prayed some more and we put our faith and trust into the Lord's hands.....

The next morning we got a call from a ward member telling us that Liliana was getting baptized on Friday and that we needed to get the program and everything ready. We just assumed that this ward member was still on the schedule from Sunday, and that she was confused because it was supposed to be on Sunday... so we didn't think too much of it.
That night we went over to her house to teach her family again, and she told us that she had decided the night before that she was going to get baptized, but that she wanted to change it to Friday!!!!!!! The member had a feeling to call Liliana that night, and so she did, and this member had no idea what was going on. She just listened to a prompting from the Lord. Therefore, she was able to address Liliana's concern, (Which had to do with the behavior of the other Colombian family...who are members...and how they just accepted so much help from the church...so she didn't want to just join so that the church would think that they had to help her family) and she decided to be baptized!

So, on Friday night was the baptism and it was the most amazing experience in my life so far!!!!!! I was the one to go in the font with her, and I had her towel, and after she came out of the water, I stood there with her at the top of the stairs hugging her as her 3 sons were baptized. After each one was baptized they each turned and looked at their Mom with such a look of happiness and made excited gestures, and had big smiles, and I was filled with the spirit. It was such a phenomenal thing to witness. I am so lucky to be here and to feel this. After it was over we went into the bathroom where Liliana changed her clothes, and I just cried with joy. (Kinda dramatic I know...but this is truly how I felt. I was overwhelmed by the strong presence of the Spirit, and the purest of all pure joys that I have ever felt)

The next day we went to the beach for the activity with the ward and it was a BLAST! I loved it! It was beautiful and fun, and I got to watch Liliana and her sons play in the water with the cute other Colombian family and all the other ward members. It was great.

Then yesterday we could not e-mail cuz the Libraries were all closed, but the day was awesome! We went out to eat with the Little Chiapanecos and it was so fun to see them in a very touristy and Floridian place! They were so out of the element! It was fun and there was a live band playing Eric Clapton songs including but not limited to "Layla" and I thought of Mally Mae. Then we went over to the Colombians house for a celebration for the baptism and FHE, and the little 3 year old boy who they call Negrito turned on a Michael Jackson music video and started copying all of the Michael Jackson moves EXACTLY!!!!!!! It was the most cute and the funniest thing that I have ever seen! It was so much fun and I was so happy! If only Michael Jackson had known the kinds of cultural barriers he is breaking haha!!!! They know NO english and have been here for about 1 month! It is super classic!

I love it here and I love my mission! I am so happy and the bed bugs are all leaving I think! Yes we found more last week, but I think that the treatments are working and I hate them...but not even they can pull me down now! I am loving life and I am so happy! Life is the BEST!

I love you all and I hope that you are incredibly happy and that the 4th was a blast! I love you with my whole heart!

Love, Jenna

June 28, 2010

My Dear Family,

So this week has been quite the event!!!!!!! For starters.....I FOUND A COUPLE BED BUGS IN MY NEW APARTMENT!!!! Well, it is technically not new, but it WAS clean of bed bugs... and now it is not. These things are killing me... and the chemicals that I have been spraying all day onto my bed and around my room and all over my pillows are for sure not good for me either. In fact, I am trying to decide now which is worse for my health... the bed bugs or these chemicals. So yeah, we took this morning and we sprayed everything and put our mattresses into these white coverings things that we bought at Wal-Mart. Hopefully they will not be a problem for us. There were only a couple that I found...and they are not everywhere the way that it was in Bradenton, so I am not as worried...but still. I am super annoyed with these stinking things, and I am trying so hard to stay focused because they keep distracting me from the work... and that is NOT good!!!!!!

The work is going amazing!!!!! We ended up having TWO baptisms on Saturday!!!!! Juan AND Alejandro got baptized and it was beautiful! Last Monday we went over to their house at the end of the day and Alejandro told us that he had thought and prayed about it and that he felt that he was ready to be baptized now! And the way that he told us was funny because when we were walking up, he ran out of his house and said in spanish, "I am going to need a white shirt and tie immediately!" with a big smile on his face. It was wonderful and we we were so happy. The baptism was wonderful and afterwards both of them asked to bear their testimonies and they got up there and Juan thanked us for finding him and sharing with him the truth that he had always been searching for. It was so wonderful. I loved it, and the spirit was incredibly strong.

Also, the Colombian family is getting baptized this next Sunday and I am so very excited for that as well! This week could not be any sweeter!!!! Not even the bed bugs can fully dampen the glory! (Although I really loathe those creepers!...I wonder what the Lord is trying to teach me with those stupid blood suckers) But the Colombians are beyond wonderful!!!!!!! I love them and they are so great and they have such a wonderful light in their eyes.

Then the following week we have another baptism with a man named Santos Diaz, and to be completely honest.... there is something not right with him. I feel like he lies to us a lot, and when we teach him I (and Sister Murray also) have a uneasy feeling. I am not sure what is going on with him, but I am sure that the Lord will enlighten us. We scheduled his baptism with 3 weeks extra just in order to feel things out because he wants to be baptized immediately. He will be the 13th baptism that I will have had the opportunity to be a part of out here.

Also, this week is my 6 month mark, which is weird to me. I cannot believe how fast time flies by out here.....I still feel like I am going to be here forever, but I already have less than a year left out here, and I cannot believe that.

Oh, and another massive thing that is happening this week is (Dad you already know about this...) that we are getting a new Mission President! Yes, he is a Professional Golfer, and only retired like last year! Sweet huh! His name is President Bruce Summerhays. He is also from Utah, which will make it easier for me to stay in contact with them after my mission. President Colten lives in Virginia, so it will be harder for me to visit him but I still will because he and Sister Colten are wonderful and I will miss them so much! I really do love them! They are wonderful! I am super excited for President Summerhays though! It will be sweet getting wisdom from 2 wonderful men and their wonderful wives out here on my mission, and I will be with President Summerhays for a lot longer than I have been able to be with President and Sister Colten, so it will be a sweet thing for me! Everything that I have heard about him so far is super awesome and so I am very excited to meet him! He also coached the golfers at Stanford University for a while!

Oh and one more thing!!! Guess what I get to do next Saturday for a ward activity for the 4th?!?!?! GO TO THE BEACH!!!!! For my first time since being out here! Yippee! And President even said that we can wear jeans!!!!!!!! can you believe it?!?!?!? I am so excited! We have to stay far away from the water, but it will be BEAUTIFUL! I cannot wait!

Well, I love you all so much! Everyone should write me!

Love, Jenna

June 21, 2010

My Wonderful Family!!!!! I love you all so much!

Life is great out here on the mission. First of all, we met a new guy on Saturday named Santos Diaz, and he is getting baptized next week! It was a miracle how we met him and started talking to him..... he came up to us while we were teaching a lesson to another guy in his apartment complex in the ghetto.... it was super awesome! I loved it! WOW! The Lord is showing me so many miracles. Another one is that our investigator Juan is getting baptized this coming Saturday, and Alejandro, the one that I have been working with some therapy with is possibly getting baptized Saturday as well! I am so happy. I really want for him to break through all of his stuff and just really trust in the Lord. Also, my wonderful Colombian family is doing super well, and really coming along. I am loving them.... we are hoping to get them baptized within the next couple of weeks. I am loving the work. It is hot, and muggy and super humid, but all is well and working through it all is the key. I just have the biggest need to share this gospel with people.

Well, I have good news.... I have not seen any bed bugs in my new apartment in Tampa so far!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! I am so happy about that! We have a bunch of ants in our beds.... but after the bed bugs I could care less about the ants. They are harmless. I also think that we have termites.... but again, I really don't care about those either. So all is well on that front! Oh, and another cool things about the bed bugs.... when I did have them in Bradenton, the Lord really protected me a lot from their bites....the bites that I received didn't really hurt that bad or itch that much...and the more I learn about them the more I see what a miracle that really was! So great! The Lord really loves me so much and protects me from everything. And now, I know that He will keep the Bed bugs out of our apartment forever!

I love you all and I hope that you are all safe and well. Choose the right always! I love you forever!

Love, Jenna

June 14, 2010

Dear Family,

Well, I am here in Tampa.....back in the same place that I was in before....and I am LOVING it! Holy cow...you will not believe the success that we have been having! We are working with an entire family from Columbia (who I absolutely ADORE). It is a Mom named Lilianna and her three children Christian (14) Milton (12) and Luigi (10) and this family is truly incredible. We worked with them this week and they were so great and so we extended a baptismal date to them and they thought about it overnight, and they ended up telling us yesterday that they want to be baptized but that they want to wait until later.... which is sad, but they are a true treat to work with. I love them with all that I am. The problem is with Christian....he is the one having some doubts. He is wonderful though and I know that he will get things all figured out and that things will be AWESOME!!!!! I love this family!

Also, we are working with 2 men from Mexico City and one of them Jaun, has already accepted a baptismal date (we extended it on Saturday) and it is for the sat after this next one....and Alejandro is the other, and he too believes in the gospel, but is hesitant to be baptized.....and my therapy skills are finally starting to come in handy!!!! Alejandro experienced abuse when he was a child and I have been helping him to process through it so that he feels that he can be baptized.....it is thougouhly amazing!!!! He started talking to me one day, and I was struggling to understand his spanish because he was speaking so fast (but for the record I am getting much better...YIPPEE!) and then Hermana Murray came over and was listening for a second, and she told him that I was a therapist before coming on my mission, and he said that he felt like I was and that is the reason that he knew that he could talk to me. He said that he needs to get the bad cylces of abuse out of his life becuase he has 2 children and 1 on the way at home, and he needs to return to them in October a better man than he has been before. I am very excited about the whole thing. It is truly amazing.

So anyway, I am in my same apartment and I am loving it there....it feels like home there to me. It really is such a nice and comfy place. I feel very at home and good there. But this morning while I was writing letters on my bed, I found a little bug on my bed that looked like a bed bug!!!!! And I got really stressed and I tried to kill it, but it kept jumping away from me. But eventually, I squished it. I sure hope that it was NOT a bed bug! And if it was a bed bug I sure hope that it was the only one! And I hope that it was squished to smitherings!!!!! I HATE THEM!!!! I don't know for sure....but I really do not want another problem with those little devils! Other than that....life is good here. The work is great and I am learning so much.

The spanish is finally coming along. I do most of our phone calls now, and I struggle at times, but it is getting more and more easy. It is really exciting when I am having a conversation with someone and we are talking and it is all going great! I am getting pretty good at understanding most everything, but the challenge is still making my own sentences sound right, and expressing myself decently. But I know that it will come. I have faith in the Lord, and I was called to this work and set apart for it. I will learn spanish and be able to speak and understand it because the Lord will help me. I love this gospel.

Well, I love you all so much!

Love Always, Jenna

June 7, 2010

My Dearest Family,

Hi! How are you all doing? Well, I have had a hard couple of days. The weirdest thing happened! I GOT TRANSFERRED! Can you believe it? I have only been here for 3 weeks....so I am packing up today and trying to get all of the bed bugs outta my stuff.....we keep finding them everywhere. It is so crazy! SUPER STRESSFUL! I am going back to TAMPA!!!!!! I will be companions with Hermana Murray again, and it will only be the 2 of us. I am excited to go back and I am excited to serve with Hma. Murray again, but it is hard because I just got here and I thought that I would be here for awhile and I have really invested myself with the people and I love all of them more already than I ever did with the people in Tampa.... and I have been learning so much spanish from my comp..... so I am pretty sad. But the Lord has a plan for me I am sure of it.

So today we have been running all over trying to wash our stuff and clean the apartment so that I can move to Tampa and not take the bugs with me! PLEASE pray that I will not take the bugs with me! That would suck so bad! I spent like 20 buck today at a laundromat washing EVERYTHING that I have trying to prepare to go to Tampa.... and I am still not even close to being all ready. I spray stuff, stick it in the suitcase and then run it out to the car. It is crazy. I kinda hate it and I am really stressing out.

I have really loved Bradenton and I really hope that I get to serve here again! Hopefully when all the bugs are gone though. I REALLY love the people! And the way that Hermana Ellsworth is with the people has been really cool to watch.... I really hope that I can adapt some of the things that she does in the way that I do missionary work in the future. We have visited people in the hospital A LOT. We take a personal interest in the lives of the members and then we get several member present lessons because she is like best friends with all of the members and the recent converts. She has been here for 8 months though...and she is still staying...I hope that I can be in an area that long sometime so that I can finally feel like I am getting to work.

Last night was cool! Tell Michael that we went over to these really cool Argentininan's house and I got to drink Matte. I really loved it! I love the way that they speak! There were like 20 of them there last night and they are so awesome! I love their accent and they are really fun people! I love getting to see all of these different cultures.

I love you all so much! Thank you for being my family!

Love, Jenna

May 31, 2010

My Dear Family,

This week has been very interesting. The bedbugs have seemed to take over our apartment. About mid-week we thought that we were going to be able to move out and we went out and found a really cute condo...but then the office told us that the apartment complex would not let us break the contract because we had supposedly brought the bugs in ourselves, which I don't see how that is possible since we never sleep anywhere else. They were letting us move out and everything before, but then I guess their legal team would not let it go through unless the church paid $4,000 dollars, which of course was impossible. So, we are stuck where we are. They are in my closet in my clothes and by my suitcase too now. We took our mattresses out in the living room to sleep there over a week ago when we first discovered them, so now they are out there too....and now they are biting more. I have bites all over my body... sick huh?!?!? The good thing is that most of them don't hurt too bad, but there are a few now that really do itch or are painful. haha! Weird huh?!?!? Who would have thought. I am sure that this is a good thing for me to learn because it is driving me crazy. We have no control over being there or not....we have to sleep there of course until we get it worked out. Luckily, Sister and Pres Colten are very concerned and working hard on the problem. It is nice having people care about us and knowing that we will get it taken care of ASAP. I was surprised at how easy it was to get the ok from them to move....they were like: "Yep, move and find a place that you like that is between 500 and 700 a month. Which all places are in that range. And the condo was very nice. Oh well. Guess this is another lesson on lack of control that I must learn.

Other than that the week is going great! Sister Ellsworth and I are doing alot of great work and I am working hard on the language. I am frustrated with it a lot because I am still struggling, but it is good and I am keeping the faith that I will get it some day soon!

On Saturday President and Sister Colten came to Bradenton and took us out to lunch at the Olive Garden! That was fun! (I think that they feel really sorry for us about the bugs) So that was fun and a big bonus. They are really such nice and amazing people! They have kids living in DC, New York, London, and all of the coolest places ever! They finish their mission up in the middle of June. So, they will be returning to Virginia then, and I will really miss them. I feel kinda sad that I didn't have a longer time with them....but I am sure that my next mission president and wife are going to really rock it!!!! And do you realize that I am alomst a 3rd of the way done with my mission? I have been out over 5 months now! Almost 6! A third of my mission is over and I don't even speak spanish yet! haha! Awkward.

Oh and one more, really funny thing about this week! Yesterday in sacrament, in spanish, I had to sing a SOLO!!!!!! Yes, ME! I am not kidding. On Saturday morning the mission leader had a meeting with us, and he said that we were all going to be singing together. So we were practicing (our first time through mind you) and he made the elders stop singing....and told me that I was going to sing the song alone! I could not believe it! It was so crazy! It was Teach me to Walk In the Light only in spanish. Weird huh?!?!?!?!?!?!?! So, I did it without even knowing the song because we only practiced it 2 times! I HAD TO STAND UP AT THE PULPIT AND BUST A SONG ALONE IN SPANISH! I was nervous and I heard my voice shaking, and I did nervous swollows, but everyone said I did great. Then the three of us (Hermana Ellsworth, Elder Smith, and I) sang Nearer My God to Thee (Mas Cerca Dios de Ti) acapella. That one actually sounded pretty good and I wasn't nervous. So, pretty funny huh?!?!? I tried to tell him to not let me sing a solo, but he didn't listen. I guess it was kinda fun to be performing again! :)

Well, I love you all so much! I am so grateful to be a part of this family. I love you with my whole heart! Have an amazing and safe week! I love you all!

Love Forever, Jenna