Week 6-July 16, 2018

Chuanjiao mao!!!

Nihao fam!!!

So there's this random cat that just wanders around the MTC and it's super cute and looks super healthy and is not at all afraid of all the adoring attention it gets! No one has any idea where it came from or how it got here or what it eats or anything, but its adorable and it makes all the missionaries literally so overjoyed just to pet it!!! We named it chuanjiao mao ;) our little missionary cat--ill attach a pic!

Also, we got to watch part of Meet the Mormons 2 last night and it was so funny how sensitive we were to any sort of PDA (public displays of affection)! The movie talks about an Italian couple and how they like saved their marriage through service and the gospel and then the next story was about brand new parents and it was just funny how all us missionaries squirm even when they just like hold hands or anything. The last part we watched though was about a Japanese pop group called bless4 (look 'em up) and WOW!!! They were sooooo good!!! (yes, we heard a little bit of worldly music for a change... Jpop) but the youngest brother is serving in Los Angeles right now! And he got special permission to record "I am a child of God" with his siblings and a choir from Japan!!! Oh my goodness i died like seventy times! Their voices are so nice!!! If there's any way you can send that cover to me, that would be awesome ;) 

Other highlight of this week, my companions and I got randomly chosen to answer questions to a group taking a tour of the MTC! It was fun to see a little bit of the "real world" ;) And we got to skip a little bit of class too!

Saturday we had our last in person TRC! We didn't have much time to prepare, so we were pretty nervous going in, but both the people we talked to were soooo nice! One was a sister from Taiwan who served in Oregon (mandarin speaking) and she was super sweet! and the other was a Y-serve coordinator at BYU and served in Taiwan, Taipei! He was super cool and gave us a lot of compliments on our Chinese and the lesson and was just super happy the whole time! (We are pretty proud of the fact that in our evaluations we always get comments like "Thank you for smiling!" and "You sisters are so happy, it's contagious!" whereas the Elders who always teach after us sometimes get comments like "You could try smiling more" haha we always laugh about that--its a sister thing i guess! ;) 

Tonight we start our first Skype TRC! This is just when we have a discussion about the gospel of Jesus Christ for 25 minutes with a native Chinese speaker from one of our missions! We are guessing we will most likely Skype someone from Taiwan because that's where most of the volunteers come from, but it could be canada or california! This is a little more difficult because sometimes they don't know english at all and they speak faster and use different words than we are used to, but we are super excited! It's going to be awesome!

I feel so blessed this week because the Lord is truly with us and even though we aren't even out in our mission fields yet, I have felt so much help, support, and love from God. Every day I see things in myself that I need to change and improve and sometimes the feelings of inadequacy and all my flaws are overwhelming, but then I feel the Spirit testifying to me of God's love for His children and of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my Savior, His love, and for His endless mercy and grace. 

Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I have seen so many little miracles over the past week that have strengthened my faith and let me know that God is watching over us! I had zero time to prepare my talks for sunday (everyone prepares talks on the topic and they choose randomly) but i was fairly convinced i wouldn't get called because i've already spoken and there's a ton of missionaries who havent spoken yet and the branch president knows that we were super busy with interviews, service, and planning zone conference the night before and I was trying to be obedient so I went to bed without preparing my talk, and then we had branch presidency meeting in the morning so i couldn't do it then, but lo and behold, my name was called and I stood (my heart was racing at like fifty hundred mph) but through the grace of God I was able to give a talk about the Atonement and justice almost completely in Chinese. I would definitely say it was a miracle. Many others things like that have happened and its truly been amazing to see all the tender mercies and blessings from trying your best to do the Lord's will.

Have a fantastic week!

Sending love and hugs and prayers!

Sis. Jensen

1. The first pic is the zone coming back from cleaning the temple
(hence the shoes) trying to stand in the little shade of the pole cuz
it’s so hot
2. Sis Cruz and I have the same skirt! 😉
3. The district (HAPPY BDAY BEN!)
4. The cat❤️