Walking Where He Walked

Getting a little wet.

It's been another awesome week in the Boa Vista!  I'm just loving everything about this place and I'm so grateful to be here.  To explain my area a little better, I'm serving in the northern most part of my mission in the state of Roraima.  I had to cross the equator to get here, but it's really not too hot.  Especially with an umbrella to block the sun.  Honestly, we use umbrellas everyday, but not for rain...for SUN!  However, it has rained a lot this week.  I love the tropical rainstorms that come rolling through here.  We got caught in one eariler this week on our way to a lunch appointment and we had to turn back around to go home because it was raining so hard.  We were laughing so hard by the time we made it home because we were drenched!  The city of Boa Vista makes up one zone.  Unfortunately, Boa Vista is not a stake yet, but it will be!  There are 5 branches here with several members, but only a tiny fraction of members are active.  In another 2 months we are hoping to have our new chapel finished.  It is really a diamond in the rough and every time we tell people "Hey, that's our church!" I get so excited!  I have a great vision of this chapel being filled with members!

 

We thought it would be a good idea to tract homes near the new chapel and we had a lot of success.  I'm amazed with how excepting people are here.  I'm finding though that the initial interaction is easy, but getting people to keep commitments is the tough part.  A part of me thinks it is becuse we are American.  A lot of people here are fasinated with Americans. 

Speaking of America...today we ate fries!!!  Sister Crane and I decided to spice up our usual P day routine and go to Centro.  Centro is like the city part of Boa Vista.  We went there with a member Irma Rose and just walked around a did some shopping, then for lunch Sister Crane and I went to the only fast food place in Boa Vista.  It's called "Bob's".  (I'm serious...McDonalds doesn't exist).  What is hilarious about Bob's is that it is considered fine dining.  It cost us about $13 american dollars a piece to buy a meal there.  I'll be honest, the burger was a little interesting, but the shake and fries were totally worth it!  We also got to sit and enjoy some good ol' American popular music.  But seriously, I'm grateful for McDonald's and their dollar menu.  God Bless the USA.

So this week I had a mission first.  We tracted into a family eariler this week and when we went back to visit them the dad let us in to teach.  It took a while to get started because the dad was really chatty, but we finally began with an opening prayer.  As I started to pray, the family started whispering their own prayers out loud and before we knew it the dad was on his feet with his hands in the air.  It really through me off to be honest with you, but hey, everyone has their thing you know?  I'm sure the way we pray was strange to them.  After the lesson, Sister Crane invited the daughters to the young women's personal progress activity that night.  They said they would come and we were really excited.  Later that night, the family showed up!  The parents and only one of the daughters came.  They were all dressed up and had their bibles with them because they thought it was a church service.  We tried to explain the activity to them, but I'm not sure if they understood.  We are a little afraid that it was too different for them.  We'll go back and find out this week.

Another miracle is with a women we tracted into last week.  We began our tracting with a prayer and we really felt that the Spirit led us to this woman's door.  However, she was not what I expected.  When she answered, she had a cigarette in her hand and started telling us how she hated the United States.  We thought, "boy, we are off to a good start!"  When talked with her a little more about our purpose as missionaries she started respecting us more and was willing to let us come back.  She has a lot of questions about life and God and we told her that the Book of Mormon will answer all of her questions.  When we returned this week, we talked a little more about the Book of Mormon and bore testimony to her of the importance of the book.  I never say too much, but I felt prompted to tell her that we love her and we knew that God loved her.  I guess that really touched her because she began to cry...something we never expected from her.  I know that the Spirit is working within her and she is really seeking after truth.  I will keep you posted on our future lessons with her.

In other knews, our investigator Dennis will be baptized this coming Saturday!  Yesterday was our make it or brake it lesson with him and we were so excited to hear him say, "I know baptism is necessisary and I know these things are true".  I love Dennis!  He will be such an awesome convert and Sister Crane and I think he would make a great missionary one day.

I want you all to know that the Work of Salvation is the most important work that we can ever do.  I'm so grateful to be serving my Savior, Jesus Christ.  He was the most perfect missionary to walk the Earth.  This week I've received several more misquito bites and my old ones are starting to scar.  To be honest, this irritated me a little and I thought about asking my mom to send me scar cream until I read an e-mail I received from my returned missionary friend who also served in Brazil.  She said,

"In the end, when the whirl of it is over, those daily aspects of life are what you remember the most. They’re what give you tan lines, a few scars, some wrinkles, calluses, and everything else that proves you lived the experience rather than passed time. The Savior had lots of scars from his earthly ministry. He walked in streets a lot hotter than you and I ever did or will, and tried to talk to people who were a lot meaner than any American or Brazilian will ever treat us. I’m sure he had tan lines, and I bet he would have killed for a shower at all. I think it’s not coincidence his ministry was spent walking in the heat and talking to people who for the large part didn’t understand his message. I always liked to think that every day I walked out in the hot sun and talked to everyone I could find, I was a little bit more like Him in a very literal, sacred way."

I'm so grateful for her wise words.  I'm grateful to walk where the Savior himself walked.  I'm grateful for every scar, callus, and awkward tan line.  I have never felt the love of my Savior as much as I do right now.  He is real.  Think about it...we have a Savior who lives and has promised that He will return.  This is marvelous news!  Why shouldn't we want to prepare for His return?  I look forward to that day when I can thank Him for all He has done for me, especially for His atoning sacrifice.  He loves us so much.  I love you all so much!  Thank you for your encouraging e-mails.  Keep doing what is right!

Sister Jensen