Week 47  Biggest Trial of My Mission

To my mom whose heart just dropped when she read the title, don't worry it's a joke! I have a funny story to tell about that later. Monday the missionaries all got together to play sports, and I actually participated. I know crazy right! That night we had a meeting with the elders where we read a chapter with their investigator from the Book of Mormon. Its times like these where I really love being a missionary. I never would have met the people of have met if I hadn't taken the leap of faith to come out here. Some of the people I have met here I question how I didn't know them before. It just seems so natural to be there with them, so familiar. The veil sometimes is real thin. This week we tried to meet with members from my new branch so we could get to know them better. I met with one who is from Russia and speaks perfect English. She has two daughters that are really cute. One told me this week, "you're small, so you're cute." Made my entire week! She talks to me about corgis so I get to "fan girl" with her over corgis. Its great! Oh, in this branch the sister missionaries teach primary every week. We have some that speak English and some that speak Georgian. So it is a lot to go back and forth speaking both languages. Whats funny is that all of them want my attention. I basically hear "jensen" every other sentence cause yet another kid wants to talk to me. It's even harder when I have to switch between languages. Man I am not ready to be a mother if this is how it is. This week Sister Mafi and I prepared to sing in sacrament. That is right I sang in sacrament with my companion! I know right, you never would have expected that. The things I do now even blows me away sometimes. There isn't much I wouldn't do for this branch. My companion sings well, so I just told her to sing louder than me. We actually prepared with a member who plays piano here. It was great getting to know her and being able to work together. The members here are pretty awesome. So now for that funny story story that relates to the titled of this week's letter. This past week we were messaging with a past investigator through Facebook. She was going into the hosptial for a surgery and I of course asked how we can help. She proceeded to ask if she could leave a newly born puppy with us while she was in surgery and recovering. I had exerted all my willpower to say no. I was so close to taking care of a newly born puppy! It's OK...I know I will receive blessings because I followed the rules. But, that was a hard one! We plan on meeting with her next week so I will probably see the dogs then. Also this week we went down to Rustavi.  There are  three churches in Georgia. Two in Tbilisi and one in Rustavi. IN Tbilisi they are brances and the one in Rustavi it is a group. The group in Rustavi only has about 12 members. Sister Mafi and I are supposed to go down about once a week. We help the elders who can't visit the female members or need sisters in a lesson. It is very hot down there and I about died the entire time. We have one member whose faith in Christ it's almost insane. Seeing and hearing and feeling her faith was such amazing experience. She felt like she couldn't be taught but we went through the lesson and her thoughts were truly inspired. She said, " It is through him and through his hope we can truly live our lives with joy"-member. Sunday was fun. After church we had a small activity to celebrate one of the primary girl's birthdays. The branch here is truly a small family. We also met with an investigator and I got to know her and her story. People here have such hard lives and it really makes you grateful for what you have. I am very grateful. Anyway, that was the week. Fun fact: Fast and Furious 9 is being filmed in Georgia right now. They are filming on the very streets I would go proselyte in back in Saburtalo. They are supposed to film in my area this week so I am stoked.

Spiritual thought:

I have been listening to some talks this week that my dad had put on a small ipod for me to listen to. One was from Elder Bednard. It was titled Tender Mercies. Because of this talk, I noticed a small tender mercy that happened to me this week. It is pretty small but it meant a lot to me. This week has been pretty stressful. I have had to be a leader in a lot of situations which is something I struggle with. I have a lot of responsibilities which at times can get very overwhelming. When we were in Rustavi I had hit pretty low. We were trying to find a marshrutka (like a taxi van/bus) and we did and we got on. Once on the marshrtuka, I felt that this might not be the one that we wanted and it just sent me into a whole other low. Turns out it went right past where we needed to go. I felt like that was God giving me a small pat on the back saying it was OK, everything will work out. He didn't send corgis this time but I was ok with that. Sometimes God blesses us in the most smallest of things and if we don't open our eyes wide enough sometimes we can miss it.

Well that is the week, til next time!

-და ჯენსენი

PS I included some pics of the Rustavi church...very small

Week 46 Through the Atonement We Can Drink Everything

Well, greetings from Isani. I am officially moved in and actually already lobbing the area. Sorry Saburtalo. We actually had a pretty crazy week so....Monday was my birthday. I am officially 20 now. Still look like I am 14, but legally I am 20. We went to an escape house with all the sisters and it was so fun! It was in English so we didn't struggle too bad. It was Soviet Union themed room and actually pretty well done if I do say so myself. After that we went all together to a Korean restuarant. They played Kpop music the entire time so that was dope. I chose some songs...so we listened to some BTS of course. Food was awesome. This is one of the most memorable birthdays I think I have had, besides getting my phone stolen in France. Tuesday was fun we taught English to a member and had another meeting with a friend of the church. This meeting was so fun. Her landlord came in and she spoke mostly Georgian and a few English words, and then our friend spoke mostly English and a little Georgian. They had a full blown conversation! At one point some other people came in and added a third language, Hindu! sister Mercer  and I were just in the middle and so confused. It was so great. After that we had normal stuff for the next few days. Friday we had transfers and I said goodbye to Saburtalo. Saturday was insane. We had zone conference and then a baptism. We had a member come who had lost contact with the church since she lived in a country (can't say which country) where the church isn't established. She came and at one point of the baptism I had to translate for her....my gosh I feel at times I still don't know this language well. I can tell living in this new area I will have to speak so much more Georgian. Sunday was crazy. I spoke and I gave my testimony. I was trying to say that "through Christ's atonement we can overcome everything"...but I missed ONE letter...I actually said "through Christ's atonement we can drink everything. I was also the chorister...yeah I just waved my arm around. After that we taught primary. Man I was exhausted afterwards. We did a BOM stand later and I met an old investigator from Saburtalo so that was fun. Oh, my new companion is Sister Mafi she is from Tonga, she's awesome! This will be a great transfer.

 Spiritual thought: sorry this will be short...I was in the one meeting with all the languages I realized we are all the same. No matter where we physically came from or what language we speak we are all God's children. We are all one big family, just sometimes very separated. I love this mission because I have been able to see that we really are not all that different. 

That was the week, til next time!

- და ჯენსენი

Week 45  Goodbye Saburtalo - Hello 20's

Well, I am finally leaving my beloved Saburtalo. Half my mission is in this area so it has a special place in my heart. I am transferring to Isani which will be in the other branch, which means goodbye Temka Branch. I didn't want to leave Temka branch but I got too comfortable. God always seems to work like that. When I didn't want to train, I trained. And when I didn't want to transfer I got transferred. I will grow to love the area no doubt but it is hard saying goodbye to a good family. Man it feels like yesterday that I was freaking out about transfers because I was training. Now I have trained and I have realized that I freaked out way too much in the beginning. My dad was right, I was really the only one doubting that I couldn't do it. Thanks dad👍! We didn't really have too crazy of a week sadly. Some fun meetings but that was it. We met one guy at a Book of Mormon stand talked to him about the church and he took a Book of Mormon. Turns out he took the wrong language. He told us "it's like Arabic but then not I don't think this is right". Well he took the Persian Book of Mormon which was funny. We met up with him later and did a quick Book of Mormon exchange since we had another meeting. He instantly started to fire questions at us. Turns out he spent a lot of the night before reading our website and had a lot of questions for us. We hope to meet him next week. The other meeting we had was with the elders. We went to this lady's hostel that she has been building for students. She came to church last week and really enjoyed it. She super cool and has been trying to do a lot service projects especially for students, hence the hostel. We went over and we got a feast! It was homemade Indian food at first and then into some type of pasta. They had a potato salad of sorts and guess what was in it! Apples! Apples and mayo never would of thought of that mix. Actually it was pretty good. We ended with a tour of the hostel and carrot cake....like completely made out of carrots. Not my favorite, just interesting. Don't worry I will attach photos. Let's see...Saturday was interesting to say the least. I will make a small list:

- old lady out the window asked us to grocery shop for her. Every other word was in Russian.....don't know how I got through that convo

- possessed man on the bus. Had a full convo with himself in a monotone voice staring off into space. Talked about people and bad people......that was creepy

-watched a group of teens hype each other up to talk to us, I think they made a deal. Proceeded to ask about our badge in Russian, astonished that we knew Georgian and once they instantly knew we weren't jdubbs went off on their merry way.

Well sunday was a doozy. I spoke in sacrament and then taught primary for second hour. We also had a baptism as well! Invited an investigator and he loved it. Also this investigator gave me a Georgian bible as a gift in church. I guess he knew my birthday was coming up. That was basically the week. Today the sisters are going to an escape house because it's my birthday. Ya'll I'm 20...what the heck. I still look like I'm 15 at the end of the day so it's fine👍

Spiritually thought: Ether 12:27. Through god your weaknesses can become strengths. Truth! I feel that this transfer I have grown a lot. I went from having very little confidence in my Georgian , to Istill not really knowing Georgian but not worrying about it so much. Not saying I don't study the language but I am not worried about every sentence I say and if people correct me. I say, I make my mistakes, fix it and move on. God has thrown a lot of curve balls at me and my weaknesses always seemed to show through. But with each curve ball my reflexes started to get better and soon enough the things I thought I couldn't do I can do. I stood up at sacrament and gave a talk and for the first time I wasn't nervous. Yes, I read from a piece of paper, but my voice was clear and I wasn't uncomfortable to be up there. God has a lot of things planned for us and the weaknesses we may have now, with faith and action in him they will be made strong. We can become closer and closer to the person heavenly fathers knows that we can be if we really put your trust in him.

Well that is the week, til next time!

-და ჯენსენი

Week 44   Too Much "Adulting" For One Week

Talk about a long week. I know wierd I never say that and I dont know why it was long but it was. Maybe I was just too excited about Sisters Conference. Monday was fun. Had a barbecue on a mountain next to a lake with a ton people. Man talk about a socially exhausting day we had to leave early though because we had a meeting. District meeting, on Tuesday, was the best  because we had a crepe off. Sister Arutyunova and Elder Crapo both made crepes and it was a blast! Tuesday starts my fun tales of having to be an adult, hence the title of this weeks email. So our contract was ending on our apartment and we had decide whether or not we would be locking our selves into another contract or try to get our landlord to go month to month. So we met with our senior missionaries and our landlord that night. I had to translate everything, except for a few convos and guess what?! I understood most of it or at least I got the jist of what she was trying to say! That was the first time I was able to understand more than I speak! It made my night. Anyway that continues the rest of the week of contacting our landlord about more apartment questions since we didn't come to a final consensuses that night. Our landlord gave us two option go month to month for a higher price or do a contract for a lower price. Man my brain was fried. I did feel old though then. I remember just yesterday when I got my first job and I felt old. Now I'm signing contracts in a whole other language and being the middle man for our president and the landlord. Then again I do turn 20 next week...that's weird. We had a blitz this week so our district went to Saburtalo to find. We did a Book of Mormon stand it was great! Had a lot of success. We a guy come up and cross us so that was fun🤣 This week we and the elders went to go to an opening of a cafe for a friend of ours who is investigating the church. He made us an amazing banana date smoothie and oh gosh it was gooood. I felt like throwing up afterwards cause it was so rich. We also met with M and Y this week. So M has been pretty busy lately and pretty stressed. I mean when you are working illegally in a country you aren't from...you get a little stressed. We also found out because she doesn't have refugee status here as well as being from the country she is from she can not get baptized. The church has come out with a new policy for people from her country (Iran). Unless she has status in another country she can not get baptized. The meeting was fun anyway. I gave Y a gift I told my dad to get in Korea. Sunday the Picards came (our new mission  president and his family) and that was great. We were in primary though since there wasn't a teacher this week. Sisters conference was afterwards and that was so fun. I am so blessed to be in this mission and to serve with these sisters. The conference was about managing demands of the mission. We got so many social demands...yeah I'm still working on that one. That was the week. Next time I email I will have may transfer calls...something says I will finally leave Saburtalo. I don't want to though. I have served half my mission in Saburtalo and I don't want to leave! That was my week.

Spiritual thought: I thought  I would share something sister Picard said that I really loved. So she has a Chinese friend who explained how the word repentance is written in Chinese. It is made of 3 characters" heart, change,  and everything". I think that's amazing! It seriously comes down to those three words. Repentance is a change of parts of your life leading up to everything which requires a sincere heart. Repentance is always looked at as being negative but really its positive. Yes the act in which you did a sin is negative but the process, repentance, is not. Repentance can help you become who God wants you to become. 

Anyways that was the week, til' next time!

-და ჯენსენი

PS I got my package with all the Korean snacks, thanks fam. I was strong and I haven't opened up any of the birthday stuff👍