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
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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
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
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
Monday, May 31, 2010
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
Monday, May 24, 2010
May 24, 2010
Dear Family,
This week has been pretty great! I love Hermana Ellsworth. She is a great missionary and a fantastic trainer. I feel like I might actually have a chance at learning this language now that I have her. She is SOOOOOOOO good at spanish, and she is a great teacher! She is helping learn how to be an effective missionary. She is very devoted to the work and she is very smart. We get along great and I am so happy that I have this chance to be her companion! I just hope that she doesn't get transfered in 2 weeks, because I would love to at least get another transfer with her since we only have 2 weeks left in this transfer. It would kinda suck to only have half a tranfer with her, but I have no idea what will happen. We never do. And she may need a change from this area she has been here for like 10 months and that means that I would have to take over the area. She is really alot like me in many ways. We are both really driven and she really loves school just like me. She is very into politics in her life at home. She is going into Political Science and possibly wants to do law school after she graduates. She attends BYU, and has one year left until she graduates. She is very focused and a very hard worker and very dedicated. She has really helped me alot with the language since I have been here.
I also LOVE this area! It is really small. The branch is smaller than Tampa. I feel like a more integral part of the work here. The members are great and the work is fun. I am enjoying learning more and more spanish. I really love spanish when I get to speak it a bit. It is really fun and as I understand more and more as it comes together kinda like a puzzle. The grammer is the most challenging. Pray for me to get it! :)
The problem is this. I have BED BUGS!!!! No joke. It has been a big problem for us this week. I noticed that on my sheets I was seeing little blood spots and then long blood streaks. It really grossed me out so I started to search my body for bites, but I could only find the plethora of mosquito bites that we obtain every day. But it was getting worse and worse each night. Then I started to notice blood smears on the outside of my pjs. So, I figured that I had bugs in my bed and that I was smashing them as I slept at night. So, we pulled up my mattress and all over on the box spring and on the bottom of the mattress were little black bugs. SUPER GROSS!!!!! We pulled the mattresses out on Saturday night and slept in the family room..... probably making the problem worse by spreading it....but we had no other options. Then yesterday at church we asked a really smart lady in the branch about it and she said that it perfectly fits the description of the bed bugs called chin-chas but that those bugs really bite you alot and it makes it really hard to sleep. However, we really have not had much of a problem with getting bitten. (at least that we know of...and I am guessing that we would know) So it seems as though the Lord has been protecting us from the bites of these annoying little bugs and I am very grateful for that! VERY GRATEFUL! The lady said that they are very hard to get rid of and that you had to throw away the beds and move to another apartment. Well, that is completely out of our control and I doubt that it will happen. So, pray for us about this. Who knows what is going to happen. It is really weird and making it hard for us kinda. Especially with all of the problems that Hermana Ellsworth has already had with her other comp, and then her leaving, and then all the members asking about it.
Anyways, everything is great and the gospel is true. Bugs are annoying. The members here are great! Except in this branch we only have like 5 worthy preisthood holders, so pray for us to find more family men for the church! I love a recent convert named Luz...she is awesome and comes tracting with us alot. She is from Honduras ans she is hilarious! I also love Hermana Montanez, who is a member from Puerto Rico and she says and does the most hilarious things! She is about 55 or 60 I would guess and she is a blast to do splits with. I am loving life and learning alot.
Love Forever, Jenna
This week has been pretty great! I love Hermana Ellsworth. She is a great missionary and a fantastic trainer. I feel like I might actually have a chance at learning this language now that I have her. She is SOOOOOOOO good at spanish, and she is a great teacher! She is helping learn how to be an effective missionary. She is very devoted to the work and she is very smart. We get along great and I am so happy that I have this chance to be her companion! I just hope that she doesn't get transfered in 2 weeks, because I would love to at least get another transfer with her since we only have 2 weeks left in this transfer. It would kinda suck to only have half a tranfer with her, but I have no idea what will happen. We never do. And she may need a change from this area she has been here for like 10 months and that means that I would have to take over the area. She is really alot like me in many ways. We are both really driven and she really loves school just like me. She is very into politics in her life at home. She is going into Political Science and possibly wants to do law school after she graduates. She attends BYU, and has one year left until she graduates. She is very focused and a very hard worker and very dedicated. She has really helped me alot with the language since I have been here.
I also LOVE this area! It is really small. The branch is smaller than Tampa. I feel like a more integral part of the work here. The members are great and the work is fun. I am enjoying learning more and more spanish. I really love spanish when I get to speak it a bit. It is really fun and as I understand more and more as it comes together kinda like a puzzle. The grammer is the most challenging. Pray for me to get it! :)
The problem is this. I have BED BUGS!!!! No joke. It has been a big problem for us this week. I noticed that on my sheets I was seeing little blood spots and then long blood streaks. It really grossed me out so I started to search my body for bites, but I could only find the plethora of mosquito bites that we obtain every day. But it was getting worse and worse each night. Then I started to notice blood smears on the outside of my pjs. So, I figured that I had bugs in my bed and that I was smashing them as I slept at night. So, we pulled up my mattress and all over on the box spring and on the bottom of the mattress were little black bugs. SUPER GROSS!!!!! We pulled the mattresses out on Saturday night and slept in the family room..... probably making the problem worse by spreading it....but we had no other options. Then yesterday at church we asked a really smart lady in the branch about it and she said that it perfectly fits the description of the bed bugs called chin-chas but that those bugs really bite you alot and it makes it really hard to sleep. However, we really have not had much of a problem with getting bitten. (at least that we know of...and I am guessing that we would know) So it seems as though the Lord has been protecting us from the bites of these annoying little bugs and I am very grateful for that! VERY GRATEFUL! The lady said that they are very hard to get rid of and that you had to throw away the beds and move to another apartment. Well, that is completely out of our control and I doubt that it will happen. So, pray for us about this. Who knows what is going to happen. It is really weird and making it hard for us kinda. Especially with all of the problems that Hermana Ellsworth has already had with her other comp, and then her leaving, and then all the members asking about it.
Anyways, everything is great and the gospel is true. Bugs are annoying. The members here are great! Except in this branch we only have like 5 worthy preisthood holders, so pray for us to find more family men for the church! I love a recent convert named Luz...she is awesome and comes tracting with us alot. She is from Honduras ans she is hilarious! I also love Hermana Montanez, who is a member from Puerto Rico and she says and does the most hilarious things! She is about 55 or 60 I would guess and she is a blast to do splits with. I am loving life and learning alot.
Love Forever, Jenna
May 17, 2010
My Dearest Family, So this week was kinda hard in one way and really AMAZING in another. The great thing was that Elder Anderson came to talk to us on Saturday....it was truly amazing and I goty to shake his hand. HE was great and it was really uplifting. I really enjoyed it. The hard thing is that I am getting transfered today, away from My Hermanas and away from Tampa. It is right in the middle of this transfer so it is weird and unexpected. There was a sister who had to go home for some reason I think it was depression of some sort. Anyways, she had to leave, so Thursday night we got a call from Pres. and he said that I would be transfered down to Bradenton today and serving with Sister Ellsworth. I was so sad to be leaving my hermanas right in the middle of the transfer like this. It was really hard.
On Saturday I got to meet all the Spanish Sisters at the conference with Elder Anderson. They ALL seem super awesome! I met Sister Ellsworth and she seemed really great. So, it made me even more excited. And she trained Sister Kortsen and she told me that she owes all her spanish to Sis Ellsworth because she is so great at it... and also that she (Sis Ellsworth) is really fun. And so now I am already with Sis Ellsworth, and she was crying because her companion had to leave... but now we are here e-mailing and I am so happy to be with her...and hopefully cheer her up in some way. It has to be hard having a comp go home.... So anyways, hopefully this will be great! And in addition, I will get to drive by the OCEAN today!!!!! Yippee!!!! I have not seen it once since I have been here in Tampa. That will be great!
So that is my week in a nut shell....pretty cool how the Lord helps us and uses our weaknesses to make us stronger. Oh, and one more thing.....there was a very spiritual moment with Elder Anderson when he was bearing his testimony of our Savior and of the Atomement, and since I was front row and center... he was looking straight at me the entire time and we made eye contact and it was aweseome.... But I want to share with you all that I KNOW that our Savior lives....and I KNOW that we can all have a very personal relationship with Him. It is up to us. VERY PERSONAL. I am just beginning to understand the magnitude of this statement, but I hope that you all can understand it too, and work your very hardest to learn more and work at this. It really is CRUCIAL to our eternal salvation.
I love you all! Love Forever, Jenna
On Saturday I got to meet all the Spanish Sisters at the conference with Elder Anderson. They ALL seem super awesome! I met Sister Ellsworth and she seemed really great. So, it made me even more excited. And she trained Sister Kortsen and she told me that she owes all her spanish to Sis Ellsworth because she is so great at it... and also that she (Sis Ellsworth) is really fun. And so now I am already with Sis Ellsworth, and she was crying because her companion had to leave... but now we are here e-mailing and I am so happy to be with her...and hopefully cheer her up in some way. It has to be hard having a comp go home.... So anyways, hopefully this will be great! And in addition, I will get to drive by the OCEAN today!!!!! Yippee!!!! I have not seen it once since I have been here in Tampa. That will be great!
So that is my week in a nut shell....pretty cool how the Lord helps us and uses our weaknesses to make us stronger. Oh, and one more thing.....there was a very spiritual moment with Elder Anderson when he was bearing his testimony of our Savior and of the Atomement, and since I was front row and center... he was looking straight at me the entire time and we made eye contact and it was aweseome.... But I want to share with you all that I KNOW that our Savior lives....and I KNOW that we can all have a very personal relationship with Him. It is up to us. VERY PERSONAL. I am just beginning to understand the magnitude of this statement, but I hope that you all can understand it too, and work your very hardest to learn more and work at this. It really is CRUCIAL to our eternal salvation.
I love you all! Love Forever, Jenna
Monday, May 10, 2010
May 10, 2010
Well not much is new since I talked with you all yesterday....but it was sure fun to chat it up with ya'all!
Well, the baptism yesterday really rocked it! I am super super excited that I may have the opportunity to attend the Sealing of the Cabrera Family, since now their entire family is members of our beautiful church. I hope that it is in one year, because in that case I will get to go for sure!!!!! YIPEEEE! It was also so wonderful watching his eldest son Genesis baptize his father. It was really touching and I loved watching it and being a part of the process. I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!! Their other 2 sons Isaac and Daniel are also so cute and I just love their family. It has been a real treat working with them.
I just need to reiterate how much I love life. I have been really realizing the beauty in life and ESPECIALLY living Righteously... therein is where true happiness really does lie. I am so grateful to be a part of this work and to be living my life to the best of my ability. It really is so awesome!
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