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.

Jenni is learning so much and enjoying the MTC. Here are a couple of things from this weeks email:
"I am still learning so much each day. sometimes i feel like a sponge I'm absorbing so much but if someone were to squeeze me too hard it would all come out. But really it is good. The French is coming, I have already learned more in the last 2 weeks than i did the entire time i was in French class. There are definitely days that are frustrating and I don't get anything. Last Saturday Frere Le Frevre (one of our teachers) was teaching us how to conjugate verbs to passed tense, I was so lost. I didn't understand anything that he said. but everyone else in my district was understanding. I was like oh man! But with some help from the companion and the spirit I'm understanding it more."
"Each Tuesday we have a devotional. This last week Elder Kenneth Johnson from the 70 spoke to us. He talked a lot of our purpose as missionaries. One thing he said was, " our call as missionaries is a Come unto me call, not unto us as missionaries but unto Christ." i hadn't thought of it that way that we are really inviting people not just to this gospel but to come to Christ. I don't think there was one of us in our district that our hearts weren't pricked to change something to be a better missionary."
In a letter we received this week she tells us that she has run into a few missionaries from Morgan and also a few people from Morgan that work there. It always helps to see people that you know.

March 20, 2009

We received our first email from Jenni today. Her p-days are Fridays. She can only email family but anyone can email her. If you are interested in her email address please leave a comment and I will get her address to you.
Here are some comments from her email:
"Tuesday was a big day. I was able to fly to San Francisco with 7 Sisters and 2 Elders to go to the French Consulate. They have this funny rule that anyone getting a visa has to make a personal appearance. So off we went. The sad part was my companion wasn't scheduled to go until Thursday:( It was a long day all around. We left the MTC at 5:00 am and didn't return until 9:30 pm that night. The whole experience was exciting. I was excited to leave the MTC for a day, I didn't realize how different you are as a missionary in the "real" world; everyone looks at you differently. I felt like we were all on a field trip. San Francisco was an interesting place. We were able to go down to the Piers for lunch which was really cool. By the time we got back I was so tired. I was so excited to be back at the MTC."
"I am surprised at how fast we are learning French. We cover so much, I know that the only way we can do that and be able to understand it is through the Holy Ghost. We were learning numbers the other day and played battleship."
"I feel so blessed to be here. It's not easy but it is totally worth it. I know that Heavenly Father has truly prepared me for this experience."

First Update - Finally

We received two letters from Jenni. Her companion is Sister Cordner from Alabama. Jen is friendly and outgoing and she thinks she scared her at first. While unpacking Jen would ask her questions and then only get a one or two word reply. By the end of the second day she said it was getting easier to talk to her.
Jenni flew to San Francisco yesterday morning to appear before the consulate to get her Visa, she was really excited for the trip. We can hardly wait to hear all about it.
She has seen Sister Henk and Elder Wilkinson, both are doing well and it was good to see familiar faces.
So far she is on snail mail but her p-day will be Fridays and they will get to set up an email account so that will be a quicker update.
She has been surprised by how much French she is remembering already.
She loves the MTC!