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