Growing up = Yum

I am graduating soon.

I know that this sounds crazy but it is true. I graduate on December 14 and then I do my student teaching from January 18-May10.

Now before all those people who watched me grow up tell me that I am not old enough to graduate, I will tell you something. I Know!

Heck no I am not old enough to graduate. I am not old enough to be a teacher. I am not old enough to be an adult. Heck no.

Sometimes I wish I could go back being a younger kid. If that happened I would bask in the joy of youthier youth and never say I can't wait to grow up. I would most definitely take more time to play outside and truly live up my imagination during the summer. Willow tree anyone?

Sadly I can't though and I must face the reality that I am becoming the A word. No not the swear word but an adult. I kind of feel that it is just as bad.

Luckily for me and maybe the rest of the world I was born with a crazy side that will forever help me stay somewhat young. So I guess in the long run I don't have to worry about growing up because most likely I won't ever fully accomplish that.

80s dinosaur crazinesses

Sister Crikette

So I am back from my wonderful mission. It is a very interesting experience adjusting to non-missionary life. But I will survive.

Here is an awesome gift that a lovely senior missionary couple gave me. Isn't it just amazing? I think that it matches this blog perfectly. Here is the story behind it.

 In our mission we had a senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Ives, that came to the mission the same time that I did. Elder Ives was in charge of the vehicles and Sister Ives was in charge of the phones and housing. Well Elder Ives found out what my first name was and loved it. Or maybe he just loved to tease me about it. Well for the first little while he would only call me Sister Crikette until I chastised him enough and then he started calling me Sister "C" Jensen with of course hints at the "C" standing for Crikette and then moved to just calling me Sister Jensen. We had a whole bunch of fun for 18 months teasing each other. Well when it was time for me to go home I had Elder Ives write in my good-bye journal. When I got it back from him I found this amazing gift! Isn't it just awesome? Thank you Elder Ives!

Elder Ives, Me, Sister Ives

Other Blog

Ok so I have another blog, a missionary blog and I would love if you all would check it out and perhaps follow it. It's got great inspirational messages that all should love and enjoy. If you like it you could comment. If you hate it you could comment too. If you have any amazing ideas that would be another great reason to comment. The web site for it is http://www.happycrikette.blogspot.com/.

February 12,2011

Sorry for the slight delay. Updating her blog A.S.P
-Rashelle

Mon, December 6, 2010

Hello Family,

How goes it? This week once again has been slow. I mean slow, but we did get Leon to commit to pray about whether he needs to be baptized again. So we found out the best time to go and see him which is in the morning. Other than that he falls asleep in the middle of him talking to us. But no worries we will get him baptized.

Tomorrow is our Zone Conference and that is pretty exciting. I love Zone Conference because you learn so much also it is great to see all the different missionaries. Once again we got assigned to sing but this time it is the whole zone and not a duet.

Pretty much all of our investigators are avoiding us. They don't answer our phone calls and they don't keep their appointments but no worry I am not going to give up on them. I am just going to believe that they are busy with the holiday season.

Transfers are coming up and I kind of have mixed feelings about it. Part of me wants to be transfered and then part of me doesn't. Well it is more than part that doesn't. I just feel like there is more for me to do in this area. Hopefully the Lord and President agrees and I don't get transfered. Also it would not be fun to be transfered right before Christmas.

Yesterday in Relief Society we had a really good lesson on charity and of President Monson's talk in the Relief Society general broadcast. I wasn't able to watch it in the MTC and I haven't read it yet so I really enjoyed this lesson. It kind of ties in with this Christmas season. It seems that when Christmas rolls around that everyone becomes more friendly and charitable. What a better time to recommit ourselves to truly being more Christlike than the time that we celebrate His birth. I think that the greatest gift we can give our Lord is love. Love for Him and love for our fellowmen. If we truly love the Lord and love our fellowmen then we don't have time to commit any type of sin. If we truly loved I guess we would be perfect but I know that it is something that we can all be working on all the time.

Alright sorry that this letter is so short but I know that this week will be better.

Love you lots

Sister Jensen

Mon, November 29, 2010

Dear Family

I just want to start off by saying how much I love you guys. I was looking through the pictures that Mom and Amber sent me of Savannah and this morning I was looking at the picture of us at Amber's wedding and I was hit with how much I love and miss you. Thank you for your emails and letters they really do brighten my day. Holidays are a hard time to be away from home but I can just imagine how hard it is for Heavenly Father to send us here to earth our stay here is much longer than my stay here in Montana. I hope all is going well and that your Thanksgiving was good.

This week Trevor and Alyssa dropped us. Alyssa said that they were comfortable in their church and while they enjoy our visits they are fine where they are.

We committed Leon to baptism this week and he told us he was already baptized. We then taught him about how we need to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. We also asked him if he thought the church was true and he said he didn't know so we committed him to pray about it and on Wednesday when we see him again we will talk about the answer he received. I hope that he recognizes the answer he receives and decides to be baptized. That would be so amazing. We found the best time to catch him is in the mornings because he doesn't fall asleep on us then.

Also an interesting thing happened this week. A former investigator from last year called us randomly one day. She must have kept the missionaries phone number from when the elders were in this area. So we went over there and visited her. She didn't necessarily want to take the lessons again but were wondering if some of the church members could help her around her house. The reason she called us was because she felt that out of all the people on the world she could trust Mormons coming in her house. Carol is a very interesting character but she is very nice.

This past week the temperature got to -14. It was very very cold and Sister Nielson and I were privileged to not have the car that day. We were lucky to have some really good members that gave us some rides but we did walk a lot too. It was very cold. I was thinking how whenever I go back down to St. George and I complain that I am going to have a heat stroke and die I think that I would still take the -14 to the 114. We received a lot of snow this week and I very grateful that I have boots and the lizard coat.

Our Thanksgiving went well. In the morning we ate breakfast and played games with the elders and then for the Thanksgiving feast we went to Bishop's Stott's house. Now in the Lake Hills ward there are like a billion Stotts and they were all there so it was a pretty good get together. The only thing that was sad was they didn't have any pie. Now I know I am not the biggest pie lover but Thanksgiving without pie is almost as bad as having Thanksgiving with no turkey. We played on game that I think our family would love. It is called, "In a pickle" and pretty much you just make things up the whole game. It is pretty ridiculous but I think perfect for our family.

Sister Nielson is pretty cool. It is strange to think that it has already been three weeks into the transfer and that it is half way over. I hope that President doesn't transfer either one of us at the end of this transfer. I would love to be able to serve with her again.

Oh yeah I may or may not have cut my hair.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you don't get into too much trouble.

Love you lots,

Sister Jense

Mon, November 15, 2010

Hola

Big news of the week, I have survived my first transfer! Also I have two months under my belt. It is crazy to think that I have been out here this long because it seems like it has gone by so fast.

My new companion is great her name is Sister Nielson. We get along really well. I think that it might help that we both have red hair, even though somebody told us yesterday that we don't. She is from Oak City Utah which is by Delta which is in the center of the state. She has been out for 9 months and it is really nice having a companion that isn't going home soon.

At the beginning of the transfer I was really nervous because I didn't feel like I knew the area well enough. I kind of felt like I was starting my mission all over again because I had to re adapt to a new companion. So I will say that the first couple of days were not my favorite. But then we just started to get used to each other and it was less awkward then I realized that I did know the area. Everything is going really well now. She is a lot more bold than Sister Smith was and I am really grateful for that because I wanted to be bold last transfer but I didn't want to skonk my trainer. Now I don't have to worry about being bold because Sister Nielson is bold too. I also think that this is what the area needs right now. We have a lot of investigators that just aren't progressing and they need someone to be bold with them and ask them straight up what is going on.

We are still teaching Trevor and Alyssa. We went by this week and just Alyssa was home. We talked about the Book of Mormon and kind of touched on our purpose here on earth. All of her questions can be answered with the gospel. It is hard to teach them though because they have two really rambunctious children and when mom and dad aren't paying attention to them the demand it. But no worries we will just teach them slowly but surely.

The other day when we were trying some potentials and we had one for a Crystal and a certain address. So we go to that address and it turns out that a Crystal doesn't live there and that the people that lived there before didn't have a Crystal. While we were talking to the guy, Jim, that lived there we found out that he is a less active member. We talked to him for a while and we committed him to read the Book of Mormon and he says that he will come to church on Sunday. Later that night I looked over the records to see if I had written Crystal's address down wrong but nope it was what I had wrote. I think that God had us go there at that time to help Jim. Sister Smith and I had gone there before but no one had answered and when Sister Nielson and I went he had gotten off work early. With the Lord there are no coincidences and he has us go places where the people are ready. They may not know it yet but the Lord will never led us astray.

Ok so now I am going to ask you guys for a favor. Being on a mission really helps you see how important member missionary work is. It is through the members that we get the best referrals. It is through the members that the investigators and converts can make lasting friendships. So this week will each one of you make a list of everyone you know who isn't a member and then pray about who you can help bring into the gospel. If you do this sincerely I know that the Lord will prompt you of who you can help. D&C 18:10-17 The blessings of the gospel are too great for us to keep to ourselves. Reach out and share. Also help out the missionaries in your area as much as possible. If you are a male and there are elders in your area volunteer to go out with them and the same goes for sisters and females. Just by going with them and bearing your testimony will be a great blessing and you will see your own testimony grow.

I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

Love

Sister Jensen