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

My new perfume: Bugspray°5

Hey Everyone!!

Wow this was a great week lots of cool miracles happened! 

For p-day we went to Jensen Beach and just chilled.

This week all of my mission dreams came true, I met a super awesome dive master and he gave me all the low down on cool dives to do after the mission. Just kidding that's not all of my mission dreams but it was on my bucket list. I also got to teach the Subway guy making my sandwich about the Book of Mormon because he and his co-worker were so curious about my name tag and being called "Sister" Jennings. No I'm not a nun but it is the greatest conversation starter.

Had a super cool experience. On Friday (my year mark from leaving home) we had a day full of awesome plans, that God cancelled. But because God cancelled all of our plans that means he is promising something far greater. We dropped by a former investigator who is interested in learning more and she is inviting her neighbor to our lesson this week. And we met David who was a referral from someone we knocked into and he truly needed us to visit him and share a prayer. We also found a less active who is excited for us to come back and visit to help them come back to church. Such a humbling experience, when you think you've got it all figured out God lets us know that his way is so much better than ours.

This weekend was also General Conference. Every year we have 2 opportunities to hear from our modern day prophet as well as other church leaders, it is 2 days full of amazing inspiration. Here are some of my take aways from General Conference:

** "When you pray, are you really praying or just saying prayers?" ~Elder Juan A. Uceda

** "Within the book [of Mormon]’s pages, you will discover the infinite love and incomprehensible grace of God. As you strive to follow the teachings you find there, your joy will expand, your understanding will increase, and the answers you seek to the many challenges mortality presents will be opened to you. As you look to the book, you look to the Lord. The Book of Mormon is the revealed word of God." ~Elder Gary E. Stevenson

** "Be ambitious for Christ" ~Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita

** "Our Father’s plan for our happiness and our salvation is shared by our missionaries throughout the world. Not all who hear this divine message accept and embrace it. However, men and women everywhere … recognize its truths, and they plant their feet on the path that will lead them safely home. Their lives are forever changed." ~Prophet Thomas S. Monson

​(Doing our Stuart sign - E. Charlton, S. Kutomi, me, E. Salgado)

Such a great week. I encourage you if you didn't watch General Conference to watch and enjoy it. My talk recommendations are Pres. Uchtdorf Saturday Morning, Elder Bednar Sunday Afternoon, or Elder Christensen Saturday Morning. But really all of them were amazing.

Also funny note: I'm wearing so much bug spray that it's becoming my natural scent. The other day we went knocking for 20 minutes and I forgot to put on bug spray and I watched as the mosquitoes wouldn't even come near me, I literally smell like bug spray all the time.

Love you all!

~Sister Jennings