Week 25   I Am Human

So this week was a little bit of weird week and kinda hard. Monday was great though, we were able to just chill out a little bit for pday and not stress too much about going anywhere. That night the "Delisi" Elders and us went to a restaurant to do a small English discussion group. Super fun and the owners were sooo nice. They gave us free food and I felt so bad, but they would not accept any money whatsoever. Tuesday was when the week started to go down hill. That morning I woke up exhausted as if I hadn't slept in days and I was starving. That was the state I was in the rest of the day. No matter how much I ate I couldn't get rid of the hunger feeling. I got to the point that I was so tired of eating, but still that hungry feeling would not go away. I called the area doctor later cause this was definitely not normal. The next following days were similar however the exhaustion started to go away and now is completely gone. The hunger has stayed although it is either hunger or stomach pains. I went to the doctors and they did a normal check up and took some blood. I am still waiting on those results. Hopefully we figure out what is going on. My companion and I both had a hard week, but for different reasons. Me with my health and just craziness that has been happening and for my companion with some personal matters that happened in the past. Luckily, we have gotten pretty close this transfer and were able to talk it out. I haven't felt this emotional since the MTC, but it was bound to happen at some point, I mean I am human. I have to hit a rough patch at some point. Friday we had interviews with the mission president and game night which was so fun. An american family came to visit Georgia since they adopted their daughter here and brought a ton of american candy. Specifically, reeses peanut buttercups, since they don't exist here. All the missionaries went insane, including me of course. I have become quite addicted to this candy which is funny since we don't even have it here. Saturday was zone conference which was great and so fun as usual. It is great seeing all the missionaries. Sunday was good. Our companionship helps out with primary which is cool. We are learning the song Come Follow Me in Russian since it hasn't been translated yet into Georgian  yet. I will soon have the first verse memorized in Russian which is pretty cool. Over all a decent week, we have exchanges this week which is always fun and hopefully I will start to feel normal again. 

Spiritual thought: So the whole zone conference was on repentance and we were given a commitment which really hit me and I wanted to share it with you all. Our mission president gave us the commitment to make sacrament even more special. To come to sacrament meeting and not only think about Christ and the significance of his role, but also to think about what specific thing you are going to change the following week. During sacrament I always think of how I can do better, but I never think of specifically what I want to do to or need to do to change and become better. I want to try that from now on to start to make sacrament even more meaningful and significant.

That was the week, until next time!

-და ჯენსენი

Week 24  The Book of Mormon is True!

Dogs!!

I can't believe that week is already over, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was emailing. So the week started out so fun. We helped the sisters move to a new apartment. Once that was done we went to a Georgian restaurant and ate some Georgian food with all the missionaries. The elders were idiots and bought 100 xhinkali plus all the other food....so all the missionaries were basically broke the rest of the week. This week we had some very interesting meetings. Our first meeting was very humbling......It was in English which is good and bad at the same time. She asked us some questions and it seemed that every single possible answer that I wanted to say left my mouth. So that was nice.......Either way she wasn't interested and said that she would probably never read the Book of Mormon. Super cool lady though. We had another meeting that actually was with a referral from a member. The member thought she only spoke Russian, so we went and I just sat there and sister Arutyunova spoke. Although she spoke very little before the lady went off about her beliefs and how we are wrong. She talked about how she can see the future and has performed many miracles. She also talked about how special she is and how we should remember this moment in time for the rest of our lives. Also she said meetings with her are very expensive and we should be thankful that this one was free. She thought it was crazy that we believe that Heavenly Father has a body......Very weird meeting. She liked me though, she said she read my energy and she thinks I am very pure. She wrote down some Russian books for me to read to "educate" myself about God. Either way this was a meeting I definitively wrote down and want to remember. Sister Arutyuonva said that she used very inappropriate and nasty language the whole time and she said I was pretty lucky that I didn't know Russian. Later in the week we had a meeting with our investigator (I will call her M and her daughter Y). I freaken love them so much! We went over and talked about her situation and how dangerous it is. She has some crazy faith in God. You listen to her life and you wonder how someone could still have hope in life after all she went through and is going through. She is truly inspiring. She believes we were sent from God to her. Which I believe that as well. I also taught her daughter Y how to use Photoshop that same lesson and I had to recall a lot of things. I am loosing my touch a little bit. M keeps telling us that we are family that she is our mom which is so sweet! She calls us her daughters😊 So mom, don't worry I have someone here feeling in the  mom role. That was basically the big stuff that happened this week. It is beyond windy and makes a lot of noise at night.....so I think I am working on  4 hours of sleep today. Sorry fam if I was really out of it in the phone call....just really tired. Hopefully the wind stops soon. Luckily sisters can wear pants so I am wearing those today so I don't have to worry about my skirt blowing up. Today we are going to an Iranian restaurant with some people to do a small English discussion group with the elders. I am so excited for it. Iranian food is so good! 

Spiritual thought: This will be really short, but I just want to say that the Book of Mormon is true. I was reading it remembering what the lady had said in the one lesson about how she will not read it. I testified in that lesson about the Book of Mormon and how I know that it is the word of God......which I partially cried when I did. Every time I read the BOM it just makes sense. The gospel makes so much sense. Because of it I know who I am, why I am here, and where I am going after this life. I don't know where I would be without this information. I am starting to realize how much a blessing it is that I do know this.

Well that is the week, til next time!

-და ჯენსენი

Really cool door!

Week 23  Japanese and BTS

Sunrise

Well, this week went by in a blur. The week started out with a pday to meet the new sister. We went to Korean food! It was soooo good and oh how I missed it. It through me back to my last night before my mission when we had Korean food. The new sister is Sister Gerring and she is so sweet and knows the language really well already. Seeing these new missionaries just throws me back to my first little bit in the country. Wow, I have to say I have decently progressed. This week we have been trying to hit all the inactive members on our list...which sadly is all of them. We have started to make more contact with some of them, but the others we have had no luck on. We will continue to try through out this transfer. Friday was amazing! The elders have been trying to pass a certain person over to us but she hasn't been able to. She came to game night luckily so that we could finally meet her. They wanted us to meet since her daughter who is learning Japanese because they heard that I know some Japanese and like some of the same things as her. During the conversation she said in passing that they both love this band named BTS. And I about flipped out and I basically screamed, "you know BTS?" We both flipped out and she said, "you come tomorrow, you must come tomorrow!". So we were able to go and that lesson was everything! I talked some Japanese to the daughter and showed her my art, since she is an artist too. We talked about restarting the gospel lessons and they are so down. They actually already read the Book of Mormon since it's already in their language, and they love the Liahona. I am really excited about these people. I was literally on cloud nine after the meeting, I just couldn't stop smiling. We are trying to see them again this week and I am beyond excited! Saturday we had a women's activity for international women's day. Super fun and one of our investigators came (different one than the one I just talked about). We found out sadly in that meeting that she lives in the other branch area so we will be passing her over to the Isani sisters. We found out today they we are going to get smartphones soon, so that will be a very interesting change, that I am pretty excited about. I can start skyping the fam from my bed and not in a internet cafe! Today we are helping the sister move today, so that will be fun.

Spiritual thought: This week I learned a lot about facing your fears. One of the elders quoted their mom when she said that she was nervous about bearing their testimony. His mom says to herself, in that moment of nervousness, "I'm not a chicken I'm a daughter of God!" Super funny, but pretty powerful. We had asked that same elder about helping us get phone numbers and getting more contacts with more people. He told me the answer on the metro, and than challenged me. He said to go sit next to a lady and to try to get her phone number...I about died. He said, "It only takes about 3 seconds of courage, do you have that?" So I did it and I actually got her phone number! Luckily she knew English, but either way I did it. I realized a lot about myself then, and how these things that I over think over complicate, aren't as crazy as I make them out to be. It just takes a 3 seconds of courage, or 3 seconds of faith, to get you going. 

Well, until next week!

-და ჯენსენი

Slowly healing from my fall a week ago.

Week 22  Exactly Where I am Suppose to Be 

All the missionaries in the Country Georgia..

Drawing for Sister Van Broklin

New Companion, Sister Arutunova

This was a weird and crazy week since transfers happened! I am officially not a trainee anymore and that's crazy! Week kicked off with going to the US Embassy and that was so cool! I had Dr Pepper and oh how I missed it. They had a store with a bunch of american products that you can't usually get here! I bought Reese's because I am officially addicted to them along with the other missionaries. The brother who took us told us a bunch of really cool job stories and I swear they sounded like they were from a movie. So for a little bit, I was back on American soil. Wednesday was when transfers happened. I stayed in Saburalo and I am with Sister Arutunova. She is from Russia. We made a ton of goals for the transfer and I am so excited. One being getting fit so we made a great work out schedule and so for it is going well. Also the new missionaries arrived this week. One of the new missionaries, Elder Leyton is in our district. Seeing him throws me back to when I first got to the country. I still feel like I don't know a lot but I have to say, I have progressed. We met with X a few times this week and we ended up having to drop her. She is not willing to change and she is letting her hatred for something rule her life. She will not go outside of her apartment anymore. Her situation is unstable and it will only increase when she moves to France. Oh how I hope that in the future her heart will softened and she will be fully ready to embrace the gospel. This week I also fell pretty hard so my knee...it's basically all blue and I have a really big scratch, but hey now I can say that I put blood, sweat and tears into my mission. 

There really isn't too much else to report from this week. This coming week will be fun though. We will meet the new sister today and as customary we'll have lunch with everyone. I will be honest I am a little nervous about the transfer since I have to take more initiative now. I have more say on what happens, especially since I know the area more than my companion. She has been honest with me and says that at times she's unmotivated and will need me to help her...so there will be times I will need to have motivation for 2 instead of one. I have a feeling this transfer, I will grow a lot. But hey, I kinda of need it anyway. I am not perfect and still need a lot more refining. 

Spiritual thought: As you know transfers are made through the mission president...he receives revelation on who needs to go with who and where. I have been thinking about that a lot and how I know I am in the exact place that I'm suppose to be,  with the people I need to be around. It is kinda of a rare thing in life to know that you are exactly where the Lord would have you be. I constantly think about the people I meet, what I can learn from them since they were placed in my life for a reason and me for them. I really want to optimize this moment because I wont have this absolute a surety in the future as often. 

Well that was the week. We have a lot more planned this week so it will be super fun! Til next week!

-და ჯენსენი