Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Well it's been a pretty great week. This week we had a massive mission conference and it was so much fun to see so many missionaries and be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior with them. Got to see my old companion Sister Erickson there which was awesome!



Then after the conference Sister Peterson got sick so we spent most of the next few days chilling at home so that she could get feeling better.



Then of course Christmas!! Got to open up packages from my family, had an awesome day at church worshiping our Savior, and got to skype home to see my family! What a wonderful day and truly amazing way to celebrate our Savior.

I am truly so grateful to my Savior for coming to earth and being born so humbly and being the perfect example so that I can know the way to return to my loving Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that he came to earth, lived his life, and then in the end sacrificed himself for me. He was the greatest gift given by a loving Father in Heaven. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and given as a gift to everyone. Then Christ gave us the greatest gift of his life as he sacrificed it for us.

Jesus loves each and everyone of us!

Love you all,

Sister Jennings

Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas Week!!

It really is a wonderful time of the year! Well this week leaving Port St. Lucie was really hard because I made so many great friends there and really do love that ward because they are amazing but off to Vanderbilt I went. It's crazy I've served in the South of my mission in Miami, the farthest north it goes in Port St. Lucie and now I'm on the West Coast. 

My new companion is Sister Peterson and she's from Bountiful, Utah and she's been on her mission for about 6 months. She's so cute and spunky and we've been having a ton of fun together.

Just a few fun highlights from the week. Near our house is a house that has set up a ton of Christmas lights and you are able to drive their driveway to see them all, so of course we stopped and drove around to see the lights.

(Here's what one of the houses looked like)

Also our ward's Christmas party was this week and it was Luau themed so we took a photo with Hawaiian Santa.

Also we had the coolest miracle the other day. So recently our Mission President has decided that Sisters should not knock after 7pm because it is too dark. Well we were not going to get our full hour of knocking in by 7 so we got permission to knock after that. We knocked into the Finkle family from Washington who were here on vacation. The dad is very familiar with the Mormons and invited us right in to explain to his kids what it is that we do. We explained about what it meant to be a missionary and explained a little about the Restoration and the atonement of Jesus Christ. We answered all of the families questions about all sorts of topics. We shared the Christmas video and the spirit was there. It was amazing!! The little girl Alice said that when she grows up she wants to be just like us. What an amazing seed planted that will one day flourish into an amazing eternal family. Super cool to see that all of our efforts matter.

Well hope you have an amazing week and don't forget to celebrate our Savior, because we're celebrating his birthday after all.

Love,

Sister Jennings
​

Keep Christ in Christmas

Dear Family and Friends!

Wow it has been a crazy awesome week!

We got to do some service of helping a member decorate their Christmas tree and it was so much fun and I really enjoyed putting all the ornaments on and just enjoying some great Christmas cheer.

We also had an awesome ward Christmas party and we got to meet Santa!!

At the Christmas party me and Sister Stevenson wore matching Christmas sweaters and we were almost the biggest hit at the party. Everyone loved that the Sister Missionaries wore matching sweaters and that they were Christmas. Everyone wanted to take our picture because they loved it.

Well for a miracle this week. Recently we've picked where we knocked based on if the street name sounds Christmas-y. So the other day we picked to knock on Beard St. (for Santa's beard). The first door we knocked was the home of Danielle. As we began talking to her she told us how she had recently lost her step-father, wanted to baptize her 8 year old daughter, and her husband hadn't been able to find answers to his questions in other churches. As we said the prayer she began to cry because she could feel the spirit so strong. After the prayer we told her we could help with all of her concerns. It was amazing to see how God really does place us where he needs us, even if it's because we pick a Christmas themed street name.

Also I decided this week that it was time to retire my shoes that I've been wearing since July because I'd worn a whole through them. But also had to take a picture of my awesome shoe tan. That's what happens when you spend all day out in the sun walking and working in the name of the Lord.

Jesus must have had some pretty awesome shoe tan lines.

Well that's it for now!

Oh also we just found out transfers yesterday and I'll be leaving Port St. Lucie and am headed West to the west coast of Vanderbilt Beach!!

My new address is:

5100 17th Ave SW

Naples, FL 34116

Love ya all!!

~Sister Jennings

Fwd: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

This week has been full of a lot of really cool miracles and amazing people!

On Monday we had an amazing experience we went to this referral from the Stuart Elders and began to teach this lady Peggy and her daughter Maggie who have previously taken missionary discussions many years ago. They recently have had a death in the family and the elders said that our message would be a message of hope. After we finished our message Peggy told us that before we had come she decided that she would not invite us back again but because it was the two of us and the sweet spirit which we had she invited us to come back to teach her more.

Tuesday I got to go on exchange down to Royal Palm Beach and it was awesome getting to see my old companion Sister Oliverson and reminisce about our Miami days.

Wednesday we visited with this less active who was the first sister missionary in Hong Kong and it was amazing to see how far the missionary program has come since then and how different my mission is from hers as well as to meet a little bit of sister missionary history.

Thursday I was in Idaho!!!!

Just kidding but we did knock Idaho lane which was right by Preston street. Super funny! Also on Thursday we got to meet with our super cool investigator Tyler (who is an electrician - used all the lingo I learned from my dad) who grew up christian but hasn't been recently and wants to now develop a relationship with Jesus Christ and I'm so excited to help him with that.

Friday we tried a bunch of people; less actives, former investigators, potential investigators, etc..

Saturday we got a new car and man it is super nice!

We also had dinner with the Pointons (the kid we just baptized) and I really love this family and it was just good to see how unified they are now that the two younger kids are baptized. Truly families are eternal and I'm so glad I got to help this family get a little closer to being eternal together.

Sunday was good we got to watch the awesome Christmas Devotional which if you missed it you should definitely check it out because it was all about Christ and it's a great way to start the Christmas season. visit: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2016/12?lang=eng&cid=HP_SU_4-12-2016_dCN_fEVT_xLIDyL1-B_

Well that's all for this week and I hope that all of you are having an amazing holiday season!!

Also Floridians decorate real good for christmas with tons of christmas lights, especially since they don't have to put them up in October due to snow. Here is a cool house we found that has the lights turned to music and they play the music through speakers so we could actually watch it.

Also I got to decorate a cute little Christmas tree for my desk!!

​Love you all!

Sister Jennings

Attitude of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!!!!

I really do love this time of year, people are nicer, we all remember our Savior Jesus Christ more, and there is tons of great food.

Well to start off our Thanksgiving festivities we had a baptism!!

​Kaleb and his little sister Alyssa got baptized!!! This has been a four year journey and I'm so grateful that I got to be a part of their journey. It was a great day and a lot of the ward came to support them. Truly amazing! After the baptism they fed us pre-Thanksgiving and it was delicious and I felt like I was at home with my family with just the fun environment at the Pointon's house with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles.

We also had an amazing Thanksgiving. I am so grateful that someone allowed us to have Thanksgiving with them. We started off the week with two meal appointments to spend Thanksgiving with some families. Well by Wednesday afternoon we didn't have anyone. In the past few weeks a lot of people offered to feed us and so Wednesday afternoon we called and texted all of them to find a place to spend Thanksgiving and none of them were able to. Well we found a family and I'm so grateful for the Fairbrothers letting us come over. (we took a picture but I don't have it). 

Sister Stevenson wasn't feeling well either Wednesday or Thursday so after eating Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday we went home and spent the rest of the day recuperating.

Had a really good week and found some awesome people who want to learn more about the gospel and to draw closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

I'm also grateful for this Christmas Season and how we get to remember our Savior even more. There is a super cute Christmas video that you should all check out just go to www.mormon.org and it's on the front page called Light the World. It's all about how we can spread the light of Christ this holiday season.

Well on a funny note, we live right by the hospital and I've had to visit there a few times (to visit other people, not for my own medical reasons) and I'm not a huge fan of hospitals but God truly provided a tender mercy. At the hospital there is reserved clergy parking right near the front. It's so nice that they have reserved me a spot up close.

Well I love you all and am so grateful for each and everyone of you! Have a great week and happy holidays!!

Love,

Sister Jennings

Imperfection Seeking Perfection

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

This has been a good week. For p-day we went to the Florida Oceanographic Society and got to pet stingrays!!!

​It was really cool and they felt very weird. Also one of them was really sassy and I'm pretty sure it wanted to bite our fingers off, but it scared us every time it came around the tank to be petted.

Also this week we are finishing up the last few lessons for our friend Kaleb who is getting baptized on Wednesday. I'm really grateful that I got to be apart of his journey. To tell ya a little bit about Kaleb, he is a 12 year old boy and comes from a part-member family. When Kaleb turned 8 his non-member dad would not allow him to be baptized and so for 4 years he wanted to be baptized but couldn't because of his father. Well his mom went to court and sued his non-member dad and the court gave Kaleb permission to be baptized. So this week on Wednesday Kaleb and his 8-year old sister Alyssa will be baptized and I'm so excited for them. 

We are also working with a lot of other really cool people. This girl Daline we met last week and I think I told you a little bit about how I met her. We went by to teach her this week and she is seriously so cool. She has the greatest desire to follow God and she came to church yesterday. She missed the first hour and texted us to see if she could still come even though she was late and we said of course. So she only came for Relief Society and she absolutely loved it! She's so excited for us to come back and teach her this next week and she is so excited to be baptized.

Truly seeing so many miracles here in Port St. Luice and I'm so excited for Thanksgiving this week.

I hope you all have a great holiday week!!

Love,

Sister Jennings

P.S. the Super moon was so cool, here's my picture of it.

Duckling Days!

Hey Everyone!

Well it's been a good week. Florida is starting to cool down (and some days it doesn't) which means it's getting to be okay weather for us to wear pants (still don't like it). Port St. Lucie is amazing and it's a great place to proclaim the gospel. 

Things you can only do in PSL: 

1. Have a miracle where nobody told us that we shouldn't be knocking so late and in the dark for a whole week. With daylight savings  it used to get extremely dark can't see your feet at 7 or 8 o'clock and now it happens at 6 and since there are no street lights it seems even darker than it is. Everyone usually comments about how we shouldn't knock in the dark because it's so dark. Like everyone and I mean everyone comments on it.

2. You can hold baby ducklings at a members house. There is enough room here that people actually have back yards where they can have animals.

3. Here in PSL we are focussing on the FRO factor (Find, Recognize Real intent, Outake Members) so finding our investigators, analyzing whether they actually want to learn and progress, and then bring members teaching with us so that they will have a friend to sit by at church. And here in PSL we wear fros.

4. also since it's November we bought little mini pies at Wal-mart and ate them during our weekly planning. Crazy can't believe November is here again, can't believe it's fall, can't believe I've been here for over a year. Also can't believe how cute those little mini pies are. Like seriously adorable.

Well that's all for this week, I hope each and everyone one of you have an attitude of gratitude as we head into this Thanksgiving holiday! Know this, I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for his son Jesus Christ and for all of my beloved friends and family who truly are a gift from God. I love you all, have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Kelsey Jennings
​

New November

Hey Everyone!!

Wow, I can't believe it has been another week! Well like I said last week I'm staying here in Port St. Lucie and I'm so excited for that because we are working with some cool people and are having some amazing miracles!! 

The coolest thing happened this week! I've been searching since I started my mission for a place that I could eat Alligator and I finally found on!! So on Tuesday I got to eat gator! It's a weird taste, a mixture of fish and chicken.

Also this week I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Stevenson and she's from Wisconsin, so that's a little different. But she is super awesome and so sweet and I'm excited to work with her this transfer.

This week has been really good and we are helping some people to come closer to Christ which is the best part. Right now we are working with a part member family and we are teaching the 12 and 8 year old kids and helping to complete this eternal family. It's so fun to meet with them because it reminds me that really the gospel is for everyone and that it is so simple that an 8 year old can understand and be able to accept.

Also in interesting news, our ward freaked out about us wearing pants. One of the sisters posted a picture of us wearing pants and a picture of all the sisters exchanging companions at our transfer meeting and the whole ward was commenting. I've never been asked so many times what I think of wearing pants, and why the change, and comments about how weird it is to see  us in pants. So to update all of you. We are wearing pants to protect us from the Zika virus (it's not here in Port St. Lucie though) and so mission wide sisters are required to wear pants for all occasions except if it is a church meeting so we still wear skirts and dresses to church. How do I feel about it? It's weird, really weird and I'm not gonna lie I miss wearing my skirts.

Well that's all for this week! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Sister Jennings
​

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween all my family and friends!

This is one of my favorite phrases because it proves to the world that I am not a Jehovah's Witness! 

Well some cool things happened this week. First and foremost Alores got baptized!!!

We've been working with Alores for the past 3 weeks and he has been so prepared for the gospel and it is amazing to see him make changes in his life and draw closer to Jesus Christ.

Also last week for p-day we went to a botanical garden here in Port St. Lucie and it was so much fun to just walk around and see all the plant life.

​

Also Halloween was this week. Man I love Halloween and it was super fun, we had a ward trunk-or-treat (because there are no street lights in Port St. Lucie every church does one of these) but it was super fun and we even dressed up. I dressed up like a pirate and Sister Kutomi dressed up as a time lord from Doctor Who.

​

Also in interesting news. Due to zika Sister Missionaries in my mission will be wearing pants now. We'll look like the elders just a lot better dressed.

Also this week is transfers and I will be staying here in Port St. Lucie!! I'm so excited because there are truly so many miracles in store.

My address is:

2051 SE Hillmoor Dr. #209A

Port St. Lucie, FL 34952

Love ya all!!

Sister Jennings

PSL - Punching Satan for Life

Hey everyone!

It was really cool we got to a lot of random acts of service which is awesome because usually no one lets us help them. One lady even let us help her wash her car, which is awesome because I am now a pro car washer, since I do it every week. Also our investigator Alores is progressing nicely for baptism and is so excited to be baptized this Saturday. He is inviting all of his family, his fiance, and probably everyone he knows which is so cool. In other news we got stalked for 20 minutes by the crazy anti-mormon mom of a less active member, yeah she stalked us down so that she could yell out her window to stay out of her neighborhood. That was an interesting day. Sorry this is a shorter email. Overall it was a really good week, we are working with some cool people, still trying to find more cool people, and just continuing to do all that I can to help this area to continue to grow and prosper. Sorry I don't have any pictures from this week so here's my testimony instead.

I know that this church is true, there is power in the Book of Mormon and as we read from it we will come to know more about our Savior Jesus Christ and the love he has for us, we will strengthen our families, we will have greater access to the power of heaven and we will be able to see greater miracles in our lives. I am so grateful to have a modern day prophet who leads and guides us so that we may be prepared for the things to come and have no fear. I love the temple and how it unites our families throughout all time and eternity and how it connects us with our ancestors. I love my Savior and I know that he loves each and everyone of us.

Love,

Sister Jennings

It's a Wonderful Life ... my year in Florida

Aloha!!!

Wow I cannot believe that I've been in Florida for a year now and been on my mission for more than that!

I've spent 1 year in Florida (October 14, 2015 - now)

I had two awesome weeks in the MTC

 

I've been in 3 mission zones (Palm Beach, Miami Beach, and Stuart)

I had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple 4 times (with Breanna, with Bory, with Marla, and with Paul and David)

I got to serve in 5 areas (Delray Beach South, Gateway YSA, Boca Raton, Miami YSA, and Port St. Lucie)

I've had/lived in 6 different houses and surprisingly I remember all of the addresses.

I've helped to rescue 7 less active members (Rosemary, Yourlanda, Luisa, Miguel, Jesse, Marjorie, and Ashley)

I've helped 8 souls come unto Christ through the waters of baptism.

I got to be there for 4 of them (Breanna, Bory, David, and Paul) and sadly I was transfered before 4 of them were able to be baptized (Gloribel, Chardene &Wilkens, and Sharon)

I've had 9 transfers (6 week periods).

And 10 companions! (Sisters Peart &Olsen, King, Jeppson, Erickson, Smith, Tui, Oliverson, Herbas, and Kutomi)

​And it has all been apart of 1 amazing mission here in Florida!!

Well this week was good, besides hitting one of several year marks we saw some pretty cool miracles. We have two awesome cousins that we are helping to prepare to be baptized and they are both very high functioning special needs and it is cool to see how they just eat the gospel up. We also have a part member family that we are working with and another one we will hopefully start working with this upcoming week as well. We are finding lots of people which is amazing. Funny story on Wednesday we were getting ready for the day when all of a sudden the fire alarm went off in our apartment building and we all had to rush outside. Well we spent an hour and a half outside talking with our neighbors which is awesome because in Florida nobody knows their neighbors and we got the opportunity to meet a bunch of them. We also went to a really cool inter-faith bible study which was cool to show other people that we are Christians and that we do study the Bible, now there were a few things that were a little weird or could have been cleared up by applying the teachings from the Book of Mormon, but overall a really good experience.

Well I love you all, hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Jennings

Hurricane Matthew Adventures

Hello Family and Friends!

This is the email of how I died......Just kidding I survived a cat 4 hurricane, now that is something for the journal. All joking aside though it terribly devastated the Caribbean and God's hand was truly in preventing the storm from hitting us.

This was us waiting for news on the hurricane, when we got evacuated to head to the Stuart chapel to wait out the storm.

We then packed up everything we would need for a few days, including clothes, food, water, etc. and hightailed it to the chapel (this picture doesn't really show all we brought but let's just say our back seat was full of stuff)

We then got to live at a chapel with the elders for a few days. You can kind of see that we brought a ton of stuff to survive the storm.

We kept ourselves busy doing all sorts of stuff and our mission president gave us permission to have a guitar and a ukulele with us to sing songs and keep ourselves busy.

This was our zone picture before the first night just in case we didn't make it through the night... just kidding it really was to commemorate us staying in the chapel and sleeping there.

One of the things we did was practice teaching about the Restoration and watching movies in our make shift theater room.

Thank goodness we didn't loose power and so we had our A/C the entire time. The A/C at the church is a really good one so for the majority of our stay everyone was in blankets and sweatshirts to stay warm.

This is an example of some of the makeshift beds we had. As well despite there being a hurricane we kept the missionary schedule making sure we woke up at 6:30, exercised for 30 minutes, and had our morning studies.

This is about the extent of the damage that was done, a whole lot of trees and branches knocked down but not much else. For the people here in South Florida it really was a little rainstorm and some wind and I've driven through worse while I've been here.

After hurricane picture to show that we all survived!!!

There are a lot more photos taken during the hurricane and my short time of living in a chapel but I'll have to show those all to you after I get home.
​

Well now for the spiritual stuff, now that you know how I'm doing.

While we were storm shuttered into a chapel for a few days we still had a lot of spiritual experiences. One night we decided to as a zone have an awesome testimony meeting and as we lit up a pillow pet and had some soothing camp fire sounds going we got to feel the spirit testify so strongly that each and everyone of us was needed to be here right now. We truly felt the spirit comfort us through this storm and knew that God loves each and everyone of us. We also had many a mighty prayer together that this storm would be tempered and that we would not be affected badly.

As a result of this storm we have truly seen the hearts of people softened here in South Florida and a greater sense of love and service for those all around us. In the past few days we've filled up our teaching pool and have some awesome investigators who are progressing very nicely towards bapitism and a lot of people are recognizing God a little bit more in their life and seeing his hand in this storm.

Well I love you all, your prayers were very much appreciated and down here in Florida we could feel all of your prayers. 

God lives and loves us all so much. He sent his son to sacrifice himself for us so that he would know how to help each of us. God loves all of his children, that is why he prepared a way for all of us to live with our families for eternity so that death does not separate us but for a short while. Christ's church was restored on the earth by Joseph Smith and we have a living day prophet who leads and guides us and helps us to be prepared for the storms of life to come. I know that God called me on a mission to Florida to be here right now, to help these specific individuals at this time. I have a strong testimony in the Book of Mormon and know that it is the word of God and will help each of us to learn more about our Savior and draw closer to him. I love each and everyone of you and I'm so grateful for each of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Sister Jennings

The Hurricane Survivor