Pics from Mission!

Here are a few pictures Jenni sent back, they are in no particular order.

I don't know who all these people are, but half of them are her district

Jenni and Elder Zach Garling (he lived in Morgan awhile ago, and was my age)
Jenni and her companion

I thought that this looked fun.

Jenni, Elder Jansen Bennett, and Elder Brad Mead

I just thought this picture was kinda cool.

Snow Angel made in the garden at the temple

Elder making the Snow angel

I thought this was kind fun lookin

San Fransico (where she flew to get her Visa)

Jen and her district

Jen and her district again.

I thought this was a cool picture, and represents what she is doing.

Jenni and her companion Sister Cordner

This week has gone by so fast. not going to lie it has been hard to focus since we got our flight plans last week. Class time has actually been a life savior because it has forced all of us to stay on task and actually do something besides talk.We got a nice surprise this week at devotional. Elder Ballard and his wife came and talked to us. We were so excited because usually apostles come every 4 weeks and it has only been 3. But needless to say it was a pleasant treat. His words were exactly what I needed to fan the flame under me. He talked about having desire. He said wake up each morning with a desire to work. Miracles happen when there is desire in the soul. He told us to desire to accomplish great things and they will happen. if we will pray for a desire to do anything Heavenly Father will make it happen. i think the best part was at the end he thanked us missionaries, then he said "when you write home next tell you parents and your family on behalf of the quorum of the 12 and first Presidency we want to thank you for allowing your missionary to serve. We love you." Then he closed by leaving an apostolic blessing on us. It was so powerful. I'm so grateful today for the chance I've had to sit at the feet of another apostle of the Lord. Today I am so excited to be able to go to the temple one more time, the last time for the next 17 months. I don't think I've looked forward to it this much. There is such peace there. I'm so excited to be leaving but at the same time I'm sacred to death mostly of the unknown. But I know that if i put my trust in the Lord he will provide for me. One thing I'm most excited about is to get a new companion and to be able to start teaching. I know that my French will be rough but the only way it will get better is to continue speaking it. I have loved so much being at the MTC. There is such a strong spirit here. One of the elders was saying the other day that he was afraid that when he gets into the field and things start getting hard he wants to be able to remember all the super spiritual moments we've had here. I have been thinking about that. That is exactly why we come here first we are taught and lifted up so much, then we are sent in to the field on fire ready to spread the word to everyone we see. I feel that right now I can't wait to share all i have with the people in France. this work is true. Missionary work is so important.

I am happy to report that I received my flight plans yesterday!!! It was quite the deal. My district and the other district in our zone had decided that we would all go together to get our plans from the mail. So after dinner all 20 of us walked over, you would have thought it was Christmas morning! In some ways it was like Christmas morning. We have been here for so long and we have been readily awaiting this day. There were lots of squeals and cheering. I am happy to report that I will be leaving on Monday May 11. We leave the MTC at 1:30 in the afternoon and our flight will leave at 4:40!!!! It is a nonstop flight from Salt Lake to Paris!After we land in Paris we jump on another plane to Toulouse.
This week I have loved my personal study time. I usually struggle trying to decide what I want to study not this week. On Sunday in Relief society Sister Cook from the YW General Presidency came and talked to us. She talked to us about virtue. I am still so excited about this new YW value. She gave us a copy of the Virtue insert and challenged us to go through and complete the goal. That is just what I have been doing. I love it. I would challenge all of you to do the same. She told us that in this world virtue is being thrown under feet." We all can improve on it, not just young women. It is amazing!
This week when we went to the TRC to teach the second lesson I was so excited. It was the first time for me to actually be excited for it. I have kind of taken on the attitude of come what may and love it. I know that I don't speak anywhere close to perfect French but I do know that if I'm trying that Heavenly Father will help me. when we went to t teach i just relaxed and tried to speak everything that I could about the plan of salvation. I am so grateful for Heavenly Fathers help. I know with out him and without the spirit it wouldn't have gone as well. I love this gospel and am so excited to be going to France in just a week!!! It will be interesting getting to speak French all the time and hardly any English but the best way to really speak a language is to be immersed in it!

This week has been really good. I have felt such a strong desire to be closer to my heavenly Father and to rely on him for everything that I'm doing. I think part of the desire has come from the talks and lessons we have had this week on the different ways the spirit speaks to us and how to use the spirit to direct us more as missionaries. On Sunday we had the funnest experience! Sister Sheri Dew came for Relief Society. She had Sister Nelson with her. After Relief Society was over we got to go and meet both of them! That was really fun. I have only ever heard her talks on CD and kind of read one of her books. This was even better!! She is an amazing speaker. She talked about the spirit and when we have distractions or too many things going on in our mind it makes it hard for us to hear the spirit. She shared an experience she had about finding out how the spirit speaks to her. Until recently I hadn't given it much thought but the spirit speaks to all of us differently and if we don't know how he speaks to us then how do we follow his promptings? Her talk was just the beginning of this chain reaction in my head. I have been thinking and praying to know this too, how does the spirit speak to me personally? I can testify that when we are praying to be more sensitive to his promptings they come more often. I was so excited this week - we got new French speaking missionaries. All week our entire zone has been excited for them to come. We know that every Wednesday we get new missionaries but it was so much more exciting to have some come to our zone. It has been fun to get to know them. Being the coordinating sister for our zone I got to go with the Zone leaders to give part of their first day orientation then meet them on their first night. As we stood in front of them I was reminded of how tired I was yet how excited I was to be there. What I didn't realize at the time was how apparent it is on the missionaries face that they are exhausted. So that was fun.

We had such a great opportunity this week. On Tuesday nights we have a devotional. Every 4 weeks it is usually an apostle. We were all excited and and trying to predict who it was going to be. Elder Barnett used to work in the Cafeteria and has friends that still work here. His one friend actually makes dinner for who ever is going to speak. Well at lunch Elder Barnett was talking to him and found out Elder Holland would be coming!!! We were the only district to know before hand the anticipation all afternoon was killer. That night Elder Holland did not let down. He is such a powerful speaker. You could feel his love for each of us missionaries. He does not beat around the bush about anything. he was talking about how until this point in our lives nothing that we have done can compare with what we are doing now. nothing. He told us that "we need to grab our sock and hit the ground running, and don't stop until they have to carry you home. Give all 18 months." It reminded me of what President Porter said to me the night i was set apart and when I had my final interview. " Work every minute of every day, and to keep every rule every time." i could feel the love that President Holland has for missionaries and for missionary work. This work is so important. Then the coolest part was when we were walking back to our classroom after we were out front by the parking lot and he drove by and was talking to us out the window of his car. all of us that were there just stopped and watched him. What a humbling experience to sit at the feet of the apostle of the Lord and then to be less then 10 feet away. It was amazing!
Soeur Cordner and i got 4 new roommates last week. Not going to lie it is fun to have more people in our room. They are all going english speaking and will only be here for another week and a half. Since i am learning French and they are in our room something in my brain says that they should be speaking French too so i will say something to them in French and they just look at me like ok. It has been quite comical. I was also called to be the coordinating sister in our zone. This mean basically that i watch over the 4 of us sisters in our zone and report anything that we are struggling with or anything of importance back to our Branch President. It is actually been really fun. I am able to get to know the other 2 sisters in our district more and we all have so much fun. This next week we get almost 20 new missionaries and i think we get a few new sisters. That will be fun.I've also realized this last week that my english spelling is getting worse i seem to be combining french and english spelling together, it is quite funny.

Wasn't General Conference amazing?! I loved every minute of it! I really enjoyed the break from the regular routine. For two days we were able to just enjoy conference. we basically went to conference ate then went to more conference then at ate again. It was amazing! I especially loved the Young Women's Broadcast. While the Elders were at Priesthood we got to watch that. It brought back too many memories of being in Young Women's. Even though it was directed to the young women I got so much out of it. The theme was "A Return to Virtue." how true it is this world has very little virtue.
Tuesday night our Devotional was awesome. We were lucky to hear from Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone. His talk was different from any other I've heard. He told us that he was going to apply principles from Preach My Gospel throughout his talk. He went on and told some stories and shared some quotes and poems, but never said what exactly those points were. I loved it he gave us the principles to find for ourselves, instead of spoon feeding us. He is a very smart man and inspired of the Lord. I have been so inspired to continue and do the best i can so that I can be the best missionary i can. I'm so grateful for inspired church leaders. The Lord does speak through them and gives us guidance for these troubled times. I loved how they counseled us that we still have so much to be happy for. This gospel gives us great joy!

One of my favorite things about Sunday is being able to walk up around the temple. Yes it was snowing but we decided as a district that we wanted to go up there anyway. We have a couple of elders that haven't been around snow that much and you could totally tell. Elder Porter was the funniest. He is from Southern California. Every chance he got he was throwing snowballs. Then while we were walking around he decided he wanted to roll in the snow. Mind you there was only like 1/4 of an inch on the ground. He trekked to the top of the hill and proceeded to roll down in he suit. It was the funniest thing. Then there was elder Dunn from England followed and rolled down the hill as well, then decided to make a snow angel. what he didn't realize was that he did it right in the flower bed...oops.
I'm so excited for Conference the next two days!!! I was reading in Mosiah 2 when all the people gather to listen to kind Benjamin. I couldn't help but compare it to General Conference. The people were all so excited to listen to the words of their prophet. they gathered as families and prayed, fasted and went with an open heart waiting to hear the words of God. I know that if we will do the same for conference this weekend we will all be blessed, and will receive answers and guidance to our questions.
I love Sunday Firesides. This week we had the chance of hearing from Brother Swanson from the Church missionary services. He Shared something that I thought was really cool. He told us that when we are listening to speakers and taking notes we need to listen to write down what the spirit tells us not try and write word for word what the speaker is saying. I have tried that this week in our various meetings and The spirit really gives direction through the speakers words.