Week 65  Christmas With Another Family

So talk about an interesting week. First, Merry Christmas! I celebrated my last Christmas in Georgia. I have to say I am so glad I got to spend 2 Christmases in Georgia. The beginning of the week was actually a little hard for me. For those that don't know one of my grandmothers passed away this week and it was a sad goodbye. It however was still peaceful knowing that this goodbye is only temporary. The passing hit me with a little homesickness...so for the first time, really, on my mission I was homesick. But, with the help of my other family out here, the missionaries, I felt a lot better. Even though I was missing my family back home I was still fine and happy because I was with another family of mine. We had Christmas dinner with "visionary man" and his brother along with all the missionaries Monday. We visited Em with the sisters to do a pass off. We had a Christmas breakfast with a member and all the sisters. We had Christmas dinner with the missionaries at the senior couples apartment. Afterwards, we played board games at the church while we called our families. Thursday to Saturday was when we headed down to Armenia to celebrate the holiday with the rest of the mission. 6 hour drive both down and back up. I got to be with some of the sisters in my MTC group! It was so awesome to see them again and to see how far we have all come. Wow how times passes. I also realized how different the mission is down there. Every time I walked in to a church it was so big! And there were so many missionaries! 37 Armenians and 14 Georgians. So the mission conference there we had a ton of missionaries. As much as I loved  visiting Armenia and the missionaries down there, I could still feel how right it felt to be with the Georgian missionaries and to serve in Georgia. It was a testament to me that I am where God needs me, in Georgia with the people I serve  with and who I serve. I got to go to a branch activity in Armenia and I tried my best to interact with the members...basically only could say hello and how are you.😂 Mission conference was a blast. Awesome "trainies" did some skits and later we caroled in the rain. Sunday was pretty chill for once. I had really nothing to do. Elders taught second hour and the other sisters taught primary. So I had a chill Sunday for once! Church was also pretty small...like only 15 people showed up😅 but it was good none the less. The music guy came again to church so that was cool! Today we have our Christmas branch activity so that will be fun. 

Spiritual thought: This week I am grateful for the plan of salvation in a lot of ways. One being that we can be with our families again. Another being Christ and the role he has in our lives. Another being how perfect the plan is to each and every one of us. Like this plan is amazing and it is such a blessing in so many ways. If you truly study the plan of salvation you can clearly see just how much God loves us because each part, is a testament of how much he cares for us.

Well the next time I email it will be 2020, so til' next year!

- და ჯენსენი

Week 64  Caroling and Cookies

Well, I am going to be honest. I'm feeling pretty lazy and don't want to write an email...so this weeks email is gonna be a little lack luster. The relief society activity was very interesting but very fun. It was the wool felt craft thing where you poke it and make a shape. I did it a different way by making a ball of wool with soap and water. This wool was like straight off the sheep because it did not smell nice at all. I basically made a wool ball for an hour and a half. This week we went caroling with the sisters in our area to all the members and inactive members in our branch. Talk about fun! We also sang at a special needs home with the missionaries and we got to sing our Georgian Christmas song we learned! We had a musical program in the Rustavi branch. I did not sing a solo like the rest of the missionaries, but I did draw borders for the program. So I did participate! Sunday was great. We had so many people come to church! 54, the sacrament room was filled! We had a longer longer and oh how I love the members in this branch. They just are amazing. I am so glad I am here for Christmas again, because I love my family over here.😊 I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Til next time!

-  და ჯენსენი

Week 63  Saying Goodbye

This was a little bit of a sad week. Well, at least the ending. One of our elders has been sent home due to health reasons. There is a chance he can return after his operation...but there is no guarantee. It came to shock to all of us really. On to the more happy part of the week...it has been kinda of a crazy week. We had a wedding dinner with some investigators. Meetings with members. We had an FHE activity hosted by our senior missionaries which was fun. We did a whiteboard activity that same day and it was great! We invited a ton of people to church and I had some great conversations about Christmas with people. I felt like such an old missionary though cause it was just us sisters and I was the only one experienced on how to do it. We took the white board by taxi, and wow talk about a weird moment. Ya'll I'm old. I mean I am the oldest sister here so its true, but sometimes I just forget that though. We learned a Georgian Christmas song! We asked one of our contacts to teach our district a Georgia Christmas song and it was so fun. And then he came to church this Sunday...so that was dope. He lives not in our area so we are gonna have to do a pass off. Friday was AMAZING! "M" got baptized!!!!! I gave a talk at the baptism. I wanted to do something special for it so I learned how to bare my testimony in Persian. Only a few sentences but I did it. I had asked a friend of ours to translate it for me and basically my lunch hour was learning it. Listening to the same recording and trying to mimic the sounds. I was nervous about my talk for some reason, but I went up and I was fine. What was cool though was that although I had a talk completely written out, I didn't even look at it. I just went up and started to speak. I had the same structure, but I didn't read off anything! Talk about progress man. For those that went to my farewell talk, this was quit an improvement; from literally dying on the stage to this. I've changed a lot. One of the sisters later in the baptism said that I was glowing. Man, I was so happy that day so it made sense. We had another baptism on Saturday which was great. In my entire mission there has never been two baptisms in a single week. So miracles! Sunday was cute. We got together as a district and made crepes for dinner to say goodbye to the elder that was leaving. It's sad to see family go especially on such unfortunate terms. I do hope that he comes back. Today we are going have a relief society activity so that will be fun! And then later go to m and y's so...yay!

Spiritual thought: I memorized a scripture recently in Georgian. Its Mosiah 16: 9. It talks about how Christ is a light that can never be put out and oh how true that is. Because of him our lives have light and we can truly hope for a better world.

Til next time!

-და ჯენსენი

Week 62  A Year in Georgia

I had such a good week. Seriously the more I am out here, the happier I feel. Tuesday all us  sisters missionaries, including sister Mangum, senior missionary, and the missions president's wife were together. We went to a Georgian art museum. So that was fun and then afterwards had vegan food. Wednesday, visionary man got baptized!!! Its been long awaited and it was a blast. The baptism was very him, he cracks me up. Of course he brought a ton of food for a feast. I don't know if I have written this before, but every Saturday he cleans the sacrament room. He says it is his service to God and that he must do it. This guy is great! We talk a lot about how all of us are family here with him. He says, "we aren't friends we are family". I celebrated my year mark in country with my whole district this week. We went and got some traditional Georgian food and then afterwards we had a sleepover with the sisters that are in our area. They were so very sweet and asked all the missionaries to write something they appreciate about me. Man, I love the missionaries here. We had an exchange the next day and I had some really cool meetings with my grandchild (my trainees trainee). Saturday, went to a chocolate festival to go talk to some "peeps". And then later we caroled. I remember last year when I was in my training we did this. It was only my second day in country and I was scared out of my mind. I remember they were sending some missionaries to go out and talk to people. They tried to send me...and I said NO. This year I was the one trying to drag my trainee to come with me, but it didn't work. So I just sang the entire time. Talk about some redemption. I went out and got some contacts and I was totally fine. No one had to force me, I just did it. Yeah, big progress! Sunday was, guess what? A dozy of course. It was primary program and the missionaries had to do a lot of musical numbers to fill time cause there was only 4 speakers; so it felt like every 5 mins it was sister Jensen going up. I was chorister and then the missionaries would do a musical number. I helped the kids sing a song in Georgian and man did I feel like a primary teacher. I was in the front with a flip booklet for them to read the words. Afterwards I both taught and translated relief society. We have been trying to fix the whole teaching false doctrine thing in class so we thought it would be best if the missionaries helped by teaching with a member who was giving the lesson. I taught with one of my favorite members  about prayer. It went so well but man was my brain fried. We had some good finding this week and some good visits with members. Christmas season is very busy and there is something everyday. M is getting baptized this Friday! I am beyond happy and can not wait!😊

Spiritual thought: As I mentioned above, in relief society we taught about prayer and I thought I would share some of my insights. I feel like we forget how special prayer is. Like it seriously is a conversation with our Father who is in heaven. A lot of the members here say when they truly pray they can't NOT cry because they feel how intimate prayer is. Now I am not saying you need to cry when you prayer, but I am saying to treat it more as the gift it is. Our prayers don't need to be perfect and or long, but they should be from our heart.

Well that's the week, til next time!

 - და ჯენსენი

Week 61  Thanksgiving and More

Talk about a week! A lot happened so I'm just gonna make a list of what happened:

- had a dance party with M and Y for pday

- had a meeting to fix false doctrine that was taught at relief society (yeah we don't say the         Lord's prayer)

- Thanksgiving at the senior missionaries house

- visited a member in the hospital

- had a Thanksgiving activity in Rustavi with the members and friends

- did service at hotel festival thing of sorts by picking up trash (and bought a painting!)

- we had a super cool meeting with the guy that we met last week (came to church too!)

- had a relief society activity and made quilts (love these members so much)

- had a meeting where we learned Georgian folk songs!

- had dinner with all the missionaries and branch president (his daughter drew a picture for     me of her and I!)

I am gonna be honest, kind of lazy and don't want to write...but I had such a wonderful week. I'm just enjoying the mission and loving the people. The members, the people, the missionaries here are just such a blessings in my life. 

Well that was the week, til next time!

- და ჯენსენი