August 16, 2010

HOLY BANANAS!!!!!! I am so excited about Danny's mission call!!!!! That is so super incredible! I cannot believe that he is going to such a dangerous mission!!!!!! I work with tons of Mexicans here, and yesterday at church I was telling them (and everyone else) that my brother just got his call to Tijuana, and they would say, Oh my wow! That is so dangerous! But the Lord really will protect him, and I am so excited that he is learning SPANISH!!!!!!! I am really going to have to get my spanish better and better because both my cute brothers are going to have better spanish than me!!! JK....my spanish is getting better and better every day....but full immersion in a language does help. :) I am sending a couple things home to Danny this week from my Mexican friends here...and I burned him a CD today with my favorite spanish church songs on it :) Danny you are really gonna love spanish! Spanish gives my heart wings! It is so beautiful and when I speak in it, and when I hear it (especially Columbians accents are my favorite) it just mesmorizes me. The bottom line is that I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!

Cierra is getting baptized next Sunday which will make my birthday week extra sweet! She is awesome! Also we set 2 more baptismal dates with Carmen and Jesus, ( they are the cutest couple in the whole world and they are from Venezuela... and I love their accent too) so that rocks it! Also, Daniel Santos (WHOM I ADORE!) is being tricky....he is not wanting to get baptized, and that peeves me a lot. I told him that my birthday was this week, and it was funny because he thought that I was only 22... and we found out that he is turning 26 in oct. so I am actually 2 months older than him. He thought that was funny.....I thought that it was kinda annoying...haha! He told me (Spanish people are VERY BLUNT) the only problem with the fact that we are both turning 26 is that we are both old and not married. He then told me that I need to be sure to be married before I am 30 because white people don't age very well.... and I still look rockin now, but after 30 I will have a very tough time getting someone to marry me. I assured him that I would do my best to be married by then, and thanked him for his concern. Then he told me that he was going to have us over to his apt. on my birthday night and he would order pizza for us or something...because he said that he will never cook :)

We only have 2 weeks left of this transfer, and then I will either be training or be senior comp.....that makes me nervous...and I hope that I am ready. I will be one of the olders after this transfer becasue we have 4 spanish sisters going home this transfer, and 1 the next, and 2 the next....and then I will be the OLDEST! Crazy huh?!?!?!? The turn over rate on these missions is crazy fast. And in about a month my mission will be half way over.

Well, I am so excited fro my Birthday presents, and I am so glad that you all love me so much! I really appreciate you all.

Thank you for being my family! You are the best!

Love Forever, Jenna

This week has been great! I am doing better and loving the mission. I have had so many good days this week and was able to spend time with some awesome people out here! I am loving it. Hermana Murray and I have been bonding a great deal and it has been really fun! I am loving the work and I am loving the mission in general. Some days are easier than the others, and some days are tough...but overall, things are great and I had fun this week and I am looking forward to all the success that is right around the corner.

We have 2 baptismal dates right now...one with Cierra, and the other with a guy named Luis who is new and has a great attitude about life. Also, Daniel Santos (one of my favorites) is not ready for his baptismal date (problems with la ley de caridad) therefore, we are holding off for a week or two with him.... but the work is coming along nicely. We also have the opportunity right now to be working with 2 awesome couples that I have high hopes for bringing into the gospel. T heir names are Carmen and Jesus and the other couple is Nancy and Wilson. I LOVE bringing families into our gospel!! Nothing is sweeter! Well, and bringing all of Gods children into the gospel is of course the bomb as well. But anyways, this is what we have been up to.

So last week we did end up going to the Aquarium with almost the whole zone which was super sweet and way way fun! We even ate sushi afterwards. My favorite!!!! And we have a new Tongan Elder here from Hawaii who played football for the University of Utah and we talked alot about Hawaii. It which made me want to bust into a Hawaiian reggae song and play the ukelele on the beach (but in a good and not trunky way). Also today we went to the Airforce base with Elder Andreason because he is in the Airforce or something like that and it was super fun too! And next week our entire zone is going to MOSI which is an awesome museum here with a planetarium and everything for MY BIRTHDAY!!!! So P-Days are getting more and more fun as I am out here longer. Up till now they have been pretty lame to be honest. But of course the work is the coolest and most important thing out here and I love it the most.

Danny's call is a this week...and I cannot tell you how excited I am about that!!! I have been talking about it all day with my zone and I made them all guess where he is going. I think that they got sick of guessing because I kept asking everyone. So, my guesses are these: foreign: Taiwan or India...and stateside: New York, New York Spanish speaking!!! I am so so so so so excited to find out where he is going. I love him so much and I know that he is absolutely going to rock it out there!!!!!

Well, I love you all so much and I wish you all the sweetest happiness in existence! Be safe and remember I love you!

August 2, 2010

This week is a special week because it is Mom and Dad's anniversary!!!! Happy Anniversary! It is crazy that it is August already!

So, this week has been a very trying one for me. It was very sad. For the past couple of moinths we have been working really hard with a part-member family, and trying to reactivate the members and teach the non-members. It was going pretty well and we were getting through to the family members. The mom's name is Minerva and her sons name is Sam. We were especially getting through to Sam. He has been living in Miami for the past 15 years, and they are from Nicaragua. We ate with him at his house last Friday....(he loved to cook so so much) and the food was always so delicious.

Well, we were planning on him bringing his girlfriend who was here visiting from Miami to church with him on Friday...and none of the family showed up....and we had another appt. with them on Tuesday all set up. So, Monday night we called to confirm and see why they were not at church, and his phone was off....so we called his moms phone, and his girlfriend answered and she told me that Sam had died on Friday and that he was now an angel in heaven and to please pray for him. I was shocked and in denial because we had been with him on Friday until like 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and he was fine and loving life and so excited about the future and he had just gone shopping and bought all these new clothes and he was running around the house showing us all of his new clothes and his new shoes and his new watch. He was so excited about opeing up his own restaraunt in Nicaragua, which was going to be taking place in 3 months...and he was SO passionate about cooking and he loved life.

So the next morning (Tuesday morning) we went over to his house and everyone was there.....and it was true. He was dead. He died Friday night at 8:45 PM in a car accident. He had taken the car and gone out to get drunk (we didn't even know that he drank) and he was speeding really fast and running red lights and stuff, and he went around a corner too fast and ran into a pole, and the car split in half and half of it lit on fire, and the other half that he was in went down a cliff.... they they say that the car hit so hard that he died instantly with the impact so he didn't suffer or anything and I was happpy to hear that. This all happened only a few hours after we were there with him at his house and he had cooked us a wonderful meal. I took a picture of it and I asked him if I could take his picture and he said no, bt that I could on Sunday because he was going to wear his new clothes to church and look really good.

So, his girlfriend arrived the next day to see him, and they could not find him for 2 days...he had just gone missing since Friday....and they called the hospitals, but he didn't have ID on him. Finally Monday afternoon they recieved a call and went into the place and identified the body as his. The investigators had been trying to figure out who he was for 2 days. Such a sad story.

But on another note, we have a really great couple that we are teaching. Nancy and Wilson....and they are great. They are from Columbia. Also, we are teaching a white 12 year old from the white ward....and she only wanted sisters to teach her and there are only Elders in that ward.. and she wants to be baptized. She is super cute and her name is Cierra. I Loved her and she is a bright sunspot in the dark world. So yep....she will be my 13th baptism on the mission so far. I really love her! I think her baptism will be the 15th which is the week of my b-day!

So, that is my week. You are always in my thoughts and prayers. I love you with my entire heart.

July 26, 2010

This week has been great because we are teaching a new guy named Daniel. He is awesome and seems to be golden. I hope to get a baptismal date set up soon. Everything is aweseom!

This week we worked hard, and are teaching alot of great prospects, but nothing is solid right now. I am hoping that will happen tonight with Daniel or another couple we are workling with named Wilson and Nancy from Columbia. Daniel is from Honderus.

The language is starting to really come along nicely.....I still struggle, but I am to the place now where I can really understand people, and I can say many things.....not everything yet, but soon I hope.

Love Forever, Jenna aka Hermana McDonald

July 19.2010

I have wonderful news! I was not transferred! And I am staying with Hermana Murray!!! And this is her last transfer which means that I am going to be taking over this area in 6 weeks.....which means that I am going to be here until at least the middle of October!!!!! YIPPEEEEE! I could not be more excited about this! This is as consistant as the mission gets. I love the people here with the entire magnitude of my heart and soul and it would have killed me to get transferred....

This week has been great. Hermana Murray and I had a few really great bonding times, and I am grateful to be staying with her and strengthening our relationship. Something has happened to me this week which really changed my outlook on the amount of time that I have left in the mission...and I am now feeling like I don't have much time left at all, and that I need to really start getting better and better because these missions go by fast! My spanish is still kinda crappy.....but it is getting better through faith.

Anyways, the mission life has really become just normal for me, and I am loving it. At first I struggled with not being able to watch movies and listen to music and that kind of thing....but now, none of that matters and I am just trying to live up this short amount of time that I have not having any of that to distract me....I am in the process of molding myself into a new and improved version of myself. I am loving the mission and I am loving making sense out of all the things in this life. Life is amazing!

So, this week Hermana Murray and I did splits for a day with the St. Pete sisters...and I was with Hermana Budge, who has only been out for about 5 weeks (at that time)...which meant that I was the one who had to be in charge, and we were in my area, so Hermana Murray was excited for me because she told me that it would be really good for me to see that I could take the area over right now if I needed to. So, I went with Hermana Budge who speaks very little spanish....and we taught 3 lessons all in spanish...and I was the one to do it, and I gave her the little easy parts that she could do.

Well, I love you all so mcuh and I am glad that you are happy! Tell Danny to write me and tell me how he is feeling about all this misison stuff! It goes so fast! In 2 seconds he will be gone and I will be home and he will be home again! I love you all!!!!!!

Love Forever, Jenna

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