Week 34  Stuck at the Border

So interesting week, transfers happened...well not really for me and sister Gehring (other trainer). Our trainees got stuck at the Georgia border in Armenia and couldn't cross over.  The Tonga sister's "missionary visa" expired the day before she was to arrive in Georgia.  They are stuck in Armenia until this Friday.  The sad part is the it takes 6 hours to travel by car from the mission home in Armenia to the Tbilisi, 5 of which are in Armenia. They drove a rough 5 hours through the mountains for 5 hours just to find out they could not enter. More on this later. So this week I'm with sister Gehring and we are taking care of two areas both of which are in different branches....that's been my life for the last few days and let me tell you it has been quite a ride. I'll start from the beginning: Monday we did a sister's pday together since we had 2 sisters leaving. (Myers and Van Broklin) We did some normal tourist sites like the old fort and the mother of Georgia although we (us and sister Gehring and sister Heydorn) we thought we would see it Friday since we would have cultural day with the newbies. Tuesday was the last district meeting together and we had a meeting that night with M and Y with the Delisi elders. M was sad since she treats sister Arutyunova, Elder Anderson and Layton and I as her own kids (so cute by the way). The entire time she was talking about how great our duty is as missionary and how valuable we are to the Lord. She was doing missionary work on us! Wednesday was transfers and it was a little sad. Some goodbyes needed to be said. I gave a spiritual thought too, the APs said to try to motivate us for next transfer...I think it was good. I basically just thought of what my dad would say and went off of that. 👍I was with sister Gehring for the day. We stayed in Saburtalo (suburb of Tbilisi) for the night since we had English group later in my area. Thursday was the interesting day.  A normalish morning, we set up the Saburtalo apartment for my trainee and then went to Isani to set of theirs. We quickly went knocking before heading to the church for a training meeting for trainers. That was when we found out that one of the trainee's Visa (the one from Tonga) had expired. The church made a mistake and it expired the day before. They we alone t the border which was probably really frightening. They figured it out but it takes 5 days for the paper work to process. So me and sister Gehring became temporary companions for 2 areas. We had our meeting and then went to the other churches English class and then went back to Isani. Friday was planning day and it was a little crazy since we had to plan for 2 areas. We will basically be ping ponging between areas. We had games that night and ate out with elders and a few members afterwards. Saturday was in Saburtalo and we did a big finding day. Knocked and then later tried to find an old investigator. Sadly the guy is lost, he moved. In between we had a new member lessons with the elders. Lia(I will call her that) is so sweet and a very fast talker. I understood a good 40-50% of what she said. Whats kinda sad is that was really my legit first Georgian lesson. Because of the area I am in right now, I have only taught in English. Saburtalo is considered to be the foreigner/immigrant land...so I don't have a ton of Georgian practice like the others. It definitely is cool cause I meet people all over the world...but I am not as good with my Georgian because of that. I think that is probably one of the reasons for me training, to push me to talk more in Georgian. Sunday was kinda crazy because I was supposed to go to the Temka church and sister Gehring to the Avlabari church. I had branch council I needed to be in and sister Gehring needed to be in the other church to teach primary...so we did splits with the sister training leaders. After church in the Temka we had a linger longer, which are always fun. Afterwards we went to the Isani area since it was Independence Day in Georgia. We tried to go talk to people...but there were way to many people so we ended up just going home to finish studies and then to have a meeting with M and Y. That was basically the week. The trainees don't come until Friday, so it's more ping ponging between the areas. There is only 4 sister missionaries in Georgia right now...which is kinda crazy. Saturday there is a baptism!!! Its the Delisi elders investigator, which I can't tell you his name, but he is awesome! Sister Aryutonca and I got to know him a lot last transfer. I am so excited!

Spiritual thought: Well I thought I would give you the same thought that I gave to the missionaries. So 2 Nephi 28:30 talks about how God gives us knowledge line upon line, precept upon precept. Throughout our lives God gives us experiences to not only help us in the moment but also in the future. He needs you to be the you at certain times during your life to help other as well as you. I have seen that so far in my mission. Meeting people during times that I was ready for. I think this week was a good example for me. God knew I needed another week of learning and slightly gain more confidence to be the missionary that my trainee needs me to be.

Well that was the week, next week I will have my trainee! Very excited I'm still nervous but excitement over ways it. 

Well till next week.

-და ჯენსენი 

Week 33  I'm Training!!

So what is so cool about the email I am writing right now is that I am doing it from my new phone! Which means...I am not at a greasy internet cafe. Halelujia! Monday started out with a bang. We did service altogether, all the missionaries, by unloading a gigantic truck full of donated wheelchairs from the church to a charity fund here in Georgia. I got a pretty dang good work out that day. Afterwards we went and shopped to find some more summer dresses because summer here is very hot and when you walk all day it just feels like you are swimming through air. It's already so hot and its only spring. All the missionaries keep telling me to buckle up because I haven't even experienced the worst yet. Monday night sister Arutyunova got a haircut...which turned out very badly. The lady cut her hair very interestingly and sister Arutyunova did not like it. I had to cut it a few days later which was so fun and nerve racking all at the same time. Turned out well so we are good. Tuesday was interesting. We got our phones that day and to hold a smartphone again and to call it yours was so weird. Talk about a flash to the past. I have somewhat gotten used to it again, but I'm trying not to go back to old habits of the phone. I have wasted a lot of time on my phone before my mission...wasting countless hours on it.....yeah I hate to admit that (my parents are probably thinking "I told you so" as they read this) I don't want to go back to old habits especially now since I am not only on the Lord's time but also we don't have a lot of extra time to spare. 

Tuesday we went to Korean for lunch. There is a small Korean restaurant a few metro stops away that we love. Kinda small but amazing. Some kpop music played in the background and it through me back to old times, surprised that I knew most the songs played. After Korean we had to go home because my neck and the back of head hurt really bad. I think I tweaked it on Monday. Not from the service because I started to feel the neck pain even before the service. I laid down for a bit and when I started to feel a little better we went and saw an inactive member and dropped some banana bread off. Wednesday we finished a project we have been working on for the church which was so great. After getting everything printed off, I again had to go lay down because of my neck, but luckily the pain wasn't as bad as before. That night we went to go see a former investigator. She lives pretty far from the church and it took a long "marshutka" ride to get there. I have to say that drive just reminded of how crazy it is that I am a missionary in Georgia. I mean I basically live in the middle east speaking a very weird language! How did I even get here! Crazy where the Lord needs you at times, and for me it just happened to be on this side of the world. Thursday my neck was a lot better, some good rest and putting a heat pack on it really helped. So don't worry I am ok! We planned and then did some finding with the Delisi Elders for a bit. We then came back to the apartment to wait for our plumber guy to show up and fix our water heater...he came too late. We ended up having to leave. We had a meeting that night with some members. There is an American family who have been living here for about 2 months for travel. Super cool family. Their son got to live with one of our members out in a village for a bit and I am soooooo jealous. Friday was okay we tried to stop by and see a member but he wasn't home nor was our backup plan so we went street contacted. We had games and I learned another fun game that I can add to my list of card games. I guess I forgot to mention but this week is a focus week. So we were given 10 challenges to do this week and if we do 7/10 we get a prize. So during this week we worked on it. Saturday was interesting. Our plumber guy came to fix our water heater because the wire melted...while fixing that he had to use the shower cord so he unscrewed it and took it to the kitchen. Well when he put it back he put it in wrong and damaged the shower. So now our shower is broken. So most of Saturday was dedicated to that being fixed. Sports night was so fun as usual. Frisbee for 2 hours straight woot woot! Sunday...was a doozy, church was good. We taught primary which was fun. Then we got transfer calls...we have 6 sisters in Georgia and we are getting 2 new sisters and 2 are going home. So 2 companionship will be in training and 1 companionship will be sister training leaders...so this transfer every companionship is doing something. I didn't want to train but God knows my weaknesses pretty dang well...so I am training next transfer in Saburtalo and to be honest I am pretty dang scared. I am definitely excited but also scared.  This transfer is going to push me a lot, but I guess I need that. So wish me luck and pray for me, I'm going to need it. We actually got transfer calls at M and Ys house so that was interesting. We explained the process to her and she was sad and cried about it. She is good now though. We told her we aren't going away permanently. That was the week. A lot happened and a lot will happen next transfer. I still can't believe I am training! I don't know my trainee yet but pictures to come this week. 

Spiritual thought: I heard this super cool thing about the word perfect and integrity this week. So the word perfect actually comes from the Greek word for complete. So when you read the scripture "be ye there for perfect as I am" it actually is "be ye therefore complete as I am". The meaning of that scripture almost changes completely, well at least in my opinion. No using the the word complete...to strive to be complete is to have integrity and while integrity is indeed being honest, honesty is only an aspect of integrity. Integrity is staying the same in any situation, that you don't change depending on the people, place and/or thing. Which being the same in every situation and adding on other Christ like attributes is being complete. Hopefully that all made sense, it does at least in my mind. Now that I know this I want to start switching the word for perfect with complete in the scriptures and see what I learn.

Well that was the week, until next time!

-და ჯენსენი

Week 32  Small and Simple Things

Well the week is over which still blows my mind. I never thought that weeks would fly by so fast. On Monday we hiked to the Rustavi cross with all the sisters so that was a ton of fun, but so hot. It was actually a hard hike and it was so hot! I will attach pictures, very pretty hike. The week started out great we saw M and just walked and talked with her. She is doing great and her faith really blows my mind away at times. I also set up my Facebook which was very weird, the mission is really changing. Tomorrow we get our smartphones which will be a very weird change, but I am so excited for. I don't have to email in a internet cafe anymore! No more having to deal with this disgusting place. I am literally sitting next to a guy that is passed out from drinking and staying in the internet cafe all night. I don't want to even describe how greasy this keyboard feels...Let just say I am very very excited for the phones. Wednesday was a sick day. Sister Arutyunova got really sick that day with I believe a flu. We were inside the entire day. I studied a lot that day which was great and later when she was up and was somewhat able to function we played Loot, which is a game that my family sent. To be honest the rest of the week I don't remember too much besides Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was insane. So there was baptism and we were able to go with a former investigator. After the baptism we had to get changed to go to sports night on the field. I played Frisbee with a small group since all the guys get way to intense in soccer. At one point it started pouring rain and there was thunder and lightning. We still played which was so fun. We all were soaking wet afterwards. What sucked was we had to clean the church, me and sister Arutyunova. Our shoes were so wet we put plastic bags on them to clean. Afterwards we went to a restaurant with all our district missionaries and one of the elders's investigators. Sunday was Mother's Day so I called the family for that. During the call the girls bathroom started to leak from the ceiling since it rained so hard. When I was talking to my family the elders were trying to fix it and getting basically showered upon by all the built up water. We took pictures obviously. 

Spiritual thought: I read something recently in the Book of Mormon that I really liked. I can't remember the specific chapter or verse but it talked about how God works through small and simple things. Let me tell you that is completely true. I mean look at me I am pretty small (well literally too). It was nice to know that despite being so small or weak at times I can somehow be great in the eyes of God. I can be an instrument. That goes for everything, either that be a person or an action. It is through the small and simple that great things come to pass.

Well that was the week, til next week!

-და ჯენსენი

(I included some pictures from the hike including me dying because it was so hard😂 as well as me cleaning the church. As per request from my mom I put more pictures of me)

Week 31  5 Minutes with God

This week was pretty much a blur especially since we had Pday on Tuesday. We went to a few museums with the missionaries and they were pretty cool. Georgia has some of the oldest homosiepens bones in the world so that is pretty dope. I brought my sketchbook along so that I could draw some stuff in the museums. I have to say going through the museums and standing for long periods of time without walking that much reminded me of my Europe trip with my family. I had some major flashbacks. Luckily that trip trained me so I wasn't dying like some of the other missionaries. During the week we had some meetings with the elders to pass them off since the investigators are male. One of the guys is super dope and is a producer, graphic designer, and a business owner. He has helped film some pretty famous movies and he told us of a movie series that everyone knows well that is going to filmed in Georgia...so DOPE. He owns a new smoothie shop here and the smoothies are soooo good. We are definitely going back. We met with M and Y this week and it is always so fun. Her baptismal date was moved, but its no problem. She still reads the Book of Mormon everyday, studies pretty diligently. She just has been busy so we haven't had many lessons where the translator can help, so her date had to be pushed. M is amazing and is already is doing missionary work and she hasn't even been baptized! We got to send a referral this week to Khazakstan which was so cool, and the missionaries there were so excited. Super weird thing that happened this week was that I bought my smartphone. Our mission is upgrading so every missionary is supposed to have a smartphone and what's even crazier is a Facebook page. I didn't even have FB page at home. I make mine this week which will be very interesting, so if you get a friend request from me don't freak out! Well, that basically was the week. Today we are going hiking with the sisters in რუსთავი (Rustavi) which will be a ton of fun, many pictures to come! Well that was the week, I don't have a ton of pictures this week, at least ones that I can share to public, so sorry! 

Spiritual thought: I thought of relaying some advice I got from my mission president this week. I have been trying to make my prayers more meaningful, so he told me something that would help me change them. He said imagine that you are in a waiting room and you only got 5 minutes with God. That 5 minutes probably would change your life if it was only that amount of time. You would make sure you poured your soul out. So that what I have been doing. I have to say it works! So for those trying to make prayer more meaningful and don't know how, that is my advice to you.

Til next week!

-და ჯენსენი

(I included a goofy one, so enjoy😜)