Transfers, and Turkeys, and Cops...Oh My!

Well dear family and friends I'm excited for once again being able to tell you all about the amazing things going on in Delray!!

November 24: Today was my last day with Sister King and I really am going to miss working with her because she was an absolutely amazing companion. On our very last knocking day together we had a cool experience. We were knocking on this door when all of a sudden the owner of the hope drove up on his motorcycle. It's always awkward knocking on their door when they come up, but we walked up to him and told him we were there to say a prayer with him. He didn't want a prayer or a picture of Jesus but as we were walking away he offered us a drink of water. We of course accepted and he went to get us a drink. While we were drinking the water we started talking to him and finding out what was going on in his life. As we finished up our glass of water we asked if we could say a prayer with him and his heart was totally softened and he accepted the prayer and said it was refreshing because he hadn't prayed in a long while. Long story short he is not quite prepared for the gospel at this moment in time but one day he will be and it will be because he stopped to give us a drink of water.

November 25: Transfer Meeting!! So Sister King went to serve in Fort Pierce South up in Port St. Lucie so now I'm finishing being trained by Sister Jeppson. She is from West Valley and has been on her mission for almost 9 months, she is a Portuguese called sister and a total nerd like me. Well while out knocking today we met Angelina and her daughter Naiema who are going through a rough time after just losing a few family members and after we said the prayer with them Naiema just gave the two of us a big hug. It was cool to think about because as a representative of Jesus Christ me giving this little girl a hug was like the Savior personally giving her a hug in her time of need and it was really cool to be those loving arms of the Savior.

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November 26: Thanksgiving!!! You will all be glad to know that I did have thanksgiving with some members and it had all the classics: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and yes even jello. Everyone we met today was pretty nice but most just wanted to know why we weren't home celebrating thanksgiving with our families so it was a cool opportunity to tell people that I had left my family for 18 months to tell them about the restored gospel because I know it is true.

November 27: Thanksgiving #2!!! We had a couple who gave us thanksgiving today as well so that was awesome because it was like having thanksgiving leftovers which is a tradition in my family. Also today after eating second thanksgiving we needed to go out and knock for an extra 15 minutes before 8:30 so that we could be exactly obedient in knocking for at least an hour and so we found the soonest houses we could because we were cutting it really close. The first door we knocked on was Sonny's and we taught him the restoration on the spot and gave him the pamphlet to read and so now we are teaching Sonny and he seems super interested about the gospel. Yeah Miracles!!

November 28: Today while knocking we met Ruth who is a buddhist and we had a really good conversation with her and taught her about the restoration, a little bit of the gospel, a little plan of salvation and she just soaked it all up. She told us that she wasn't going to convert to our religion but we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it so now the spirit has the opportunity to work on her and to help soften her heart and give her a desire to learn more.

November 29: Today in church I gave my very first talk on my mission. The topic was 1 Nephi 14-15 because our stake has been challenged to read the BoM in 90 days and so the YSA has all of their talks on Sunday relating to the reading we were supposed to do that week. It was really cool focussing on these two chapters and I really learned a lot from them. After church we were knocking doors in this slightly nicer neighborhood and we were knocking our last door when all of a sudden the cops pulled up. The cop was super friendly and told us he was here for the prayer circle which we laughed at. Apparently someone in the neighborhood called the police on us because they didn't think that we were actually there to offer prayers and thought we were doing something sketchy. That's okay we talked to the police officer and he was very nice and we even invited him and his colleague (that's right two police cars for two missionary girls) to our Stake's live nativity.

Questions Asked:

How the work is going?: The work in Delray is slow but the work in South Florida is doing amazing.

So do Floridians put up Christmas lights and camp out in warm weather for Black Fridays, or are they smarter ?: They still put up Christmas lights and its really cool to see all the palm trees decked out in Christmas lights. I don't know if they camp out for deals but I assume they do and I assume they participate in all the crazy because our stake had a push to get to the temple and make it White friday instead of Black Friday. We don't know about all the black friday stuff because we don't participate in it.

Any local traditions we don't have ?: Not that I know of yet

As always I love you all so much,

Sister Jennings

Salvation Salesman

Hello everyone! 

Did you think I died since I didn't email yesterday? Well I promise I am still alive and still loving the mission. This week our p-day is on Tuesday because transfers are tomorrow and so we prep the day before.

November 16: Today we went and read 3 Nephi 11 with a less active named Watson and man he is an interesting kid and I really can't describe how interesting he is but as we were reading the Book of Mormon with him he absolutely loved it and could have spent the whole night reading the Book but we had to go home. We also met Rynhardt who is from South Africa and he is studying to become an international chef and so we will start teaching him this week. He is so awesome he was already starting to be a missionary when we knocked on door telling us how he would invite his roommates to learn from us as well.

November 17: Today we taught Brooke and she is amazing! She had so many amazing questions and we were able to correct a lot of her false beliefs about the gospel. It was amazing and the spirit truly testified to her about what we were saying. We also went and visited some less actives which is a large part of our work here in Delray and it was cool to hear how their testimonies are still there and so we are helping them come back to church and then also inviting them to encourage their friends to hear the gospel so hopefully we'll get some referrals from them.

November 18: Today was zone conference and it was absolutely amazing! I got to see Sister Olsen who was one of my MTC companions and it was so good catching up with her and the few other missionaries that I know. It was also amazing to hear the inspired council from our Mission President.

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November 19: While we were knocking today this lady was walking her dog and the dog stopped 8-9 times to just stare at me and Sister King. Clearly the dog understood who we were and wanted its owner to learn about Jesus, we gave the lady a Jesus pass-along card. This evening we went on splits with members of our ward to go see less actives. Like I said a lot of our work here in Delray is reactivation and then hopefully getting referrals from those reactivated members. It was really cool though going out with members from our ward and showing them that we are serious about our work and that we are working hard to help their ward.

November 20: Today while knocking we met Scott who lives with his cousin. The only Scott asked us to pray for was his cousin to get better because she is not doing well. It was the most spiritual door prayer that I have ever offered, by the end of the prayer Scott was in tears because of the sincerity of the prayer that we were offering. Though Scott is not a new investigator he definitely was strengthened as he now knows how much he is loved by God.

November 21: Our car has been having problems with the A/C so we took it into the shop. It turns out some Elders who had the car before us had not kept their car cleaned and a plastic bag had been sucked up and was blocking the vent and so now our car works and doesn't make horrible sounds. Yeah!!! While knocking today someone told us that he was not interested in what we were selling. It is super funny because by his account we are Salvation Salesman because that is what we go door to door offering. What he doesn't understand is salvation isn't something you can buy its something freely given by Jesus Christ if we will but come unto him.

November 22: Today was a really rough day until we met Bob. We were not sent to help Bob, Bob was sent to help us. Bob opened the door and was the one friendly person we had seen while knocking, he lives on waterfront property and told us he didn't need anything but a Republican President, a balanced budget, and the end of ISIS. We said the prayer and I mentioned those things, which made him chuckle. He then offered us inside his house to see his backyard view and gave us a water bottle and told us to be careful because some seedy people come over to his neighborhood sometimes. We then left and continued to knock doors, when a few minutes later Bob comes walking down the street to offer us a flashlight so that we can be safe. Bob is truly amazing and one day he will be ready to receive the gospel and that seed was planted by us.

November 23: P-day (proselyting-day)! We knocked from Noon - 5 pm. Miracle Moment: A few weeks ago we gave some Jesus cards to these little girls and thought nothing of it. A week after we gave them the cards they came up to us while we were teaching someone about the gospel and I gave them a Jesus card. The little girl went away and returned a few minutes later to ask for a Bible. After the lesson I felt so bad that I had not given the little girl a Book of Mormon as well so the next day we went knocking to find them but couldn't discover where they lived. Today we received a media referral that someone wanted a Book of Mormon and we went to drop it off to discover this little girl Janaia (who had wanted a Bible) and her little sister Angela (who called for the Book of Mormon). God is good and believes in second chances. 

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Transfer Call: So on Monday night we all tune into a transfer call where we find out who is leaving and who is staying. I will be staying in Delray for another 6 weeks however my companion Sister King will be leaving and tomorrow we find out where she is going. This means tomorrow I will get another trainer who will finish training me.

Love you all,

Sister Jennings

It's Raining Cats and Dogs

Wassuppp my dear family and friends! Once again it's p-day and man time flies on the mission.

November 9: For p-day we had a massive zone activity and it was so much fun. We played extreme dodgeball (I'm not a fan of it - it gives me anxiety), had a pie eating contest, and a paint war. Seriously so much fun and I now know more missionaries besides the 10 that I associate with all the time so that is a total bonus. Today was just the best day because after the zone activity we went knocking and we met Brooke and the Hemlepp family (family of 6) who are interested in learning more about the gospel so that was totally awesome!

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November 10: We are working with several less actives in our ward and one of them is Sister Lombardo. She was baptized with her second ex-husband and she doesn't really know a lot about the gospel so we are working on teaching her the lessons and increasing her knowledge of the gospel so that she will have a greater testimony and will want to come to church. Also I absolutely love the YSA Branch that we work with they are so excited to help their branch grow and to bring those who aren't coming to church back.

November 11: Today we experienced a small miracle while knocking we met Rob. The weird thing with Rob is when he saw us walking up his sidewalk he actually wanted to open the door for us and talk to us (which is unusual). After the prayer he said that we came at the perfect time right when he needed a spiritual boost. Problem is Rob is not currently interested in learning more but that is okay because one day he will be. Also more sad news for today, we cleaned out our teaching pool and dropped a lot of people because they are not progressing and they are not contacting us back, so all we have is Brooke and the Hemlepps and anyone else we meet this week. The saddest one is Lynchie and Sarah they were so elect a few weeks ago and were excited to come to church and be baptized but then we lost contact with them for a week and their youth pastor got ahold of them and are organizing a bible study class for them and so they don't want to learn about the BoM anymore.

November 12 & 13: We were on a 2 day exchange and were not in our area so we didn't do any work in our area but we helped our STLs (Sister Training Leaders) area progress.

November 14: Elissia's baptism was today (she is being taught by the other sisters) and it was the most spiritual baptism I've been to, it was really cool they had testimonies from converts to the church while we waited for them to get changed. After the baptism we went knocking and we met Peggy who told us we weren't Christian. So we pointed to our nametags and told her we were Christian and she told us that her Bible didn't say that and so we have a return appointment where she is going to try and confound us but really we all know who will do the confounding. In case you don't know its Sisters Jennings and King with the aid of the Holy Ghost. Also it rained all day today, like all day which was awesome! We also found Art in the Alley #2!!

November 15: Today was the most amazing miracle! After church and a meal appointment we had a second meal appointment/lesson fall through so we started knocking earlier than we had planned. We felt impressed to go to this street but when we got there we couldn't find parking so we kept driving back and forth trying to find a place to park. While driving to find a place to park we saw these houses and we decided we wanted to knock them. After finally parking we walked up to the first house and knocked on the first door and we found Madeline. When Madeline opened the door she knew exactly who we were, so we thought awesome a former investigator, but then she told us she was a member and she was living in a recovery facility. Madeline had been praying to see the missionaries and then there we were knocking on her door. The coolest thing is if that second meal appointment hadn't have fallen through we wouldn't have met Madeline because their rehab group was going bowling literally right when we knocked on her door. #GodIsGood #AnswerstoPrayers #MiracleMoment It is amazing how God works and the prep work that went into us finding Madeline because all that started 3 weeks ago (story for another time) and it finally happened today.

Today's Title: Well it rained like two days this week and it rained like crazy. While it rained we had this little cat that we found last week that refound us and followed us while knocking so we had a little stalker cat that just wanted to come home with us. Super funny that cat seemed to like me better even though Sister King was the one petting it and talking to it. Funny dog story, while on exchanges with Sister Rampersad we were knocking doors when out of nowhere this dog just came and starting jumping on us and wanting to play with us and playfully biting us. I had to hold the dog back so Sister Rampersad could get the contact information for a potential investigator. After finishing getting the info we decided to go back to the car and the dog just followed us and kept following us and following us.

So that was my week! Love you all!

Sister Jennings

P.S. Here is our Funny District photo

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Down and Derby

Hello dearest family and friends it really does not seem like it is Monday again, man this week flew by. Also I forgot to mention the title of my email last week "Hearses don't pull U-hauls" was a funny phrase that a member in the ward told us during a discussion with him and I thought it was really funny especially down here in South Florida where you live in one of 3 places: 1. Super mega rich beach side house, 2. Ghetto (mostly Haitians), 3. Gated community - with the majority being 55+. Well onto this week.

November 2: After writing we just kind of chilled at our house and then went knocking. While knocking I started not feeling well so we went home early and I went to bed at like 8 which is incredibly early. Don't worry I felt better the next day, I really think I was just super tired and needed a little rest.

November 3: Today we got a member referral for a YSA (Young Single Adult) from a member of the other ward but that's okay because we'll take whatever we can get. So we went to our meal appointment expecting to teach and come to find out that we weren't teaching her, no she was our waitress but that's okay hopefully we can contact her this week so that we can actually teach her. We got to teach Junia today!!!! Junia is a cute YSA Haitian that we found a week or two ago but haven't been able to meet because of her crazy schedule and we got to finally teach her. The cool thing about her is that she already believes the BoM is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet (just after teaching it to her), the only thing that is holding her back is she doesn't know if she can be baptized twice so that is something that we can work with. Also today we had our first YSA mission correlation meeting and I am so excited for their branch because they are going to blow up with new members and returning less actives. Their main focus is getting them to activities which is the best way to get them in the church to feel the spirit in order to want to learn more.

November 4: Today was a lot of knocking so I won't bore you with the details of the many doors we knocked that contained people who are not quite ready to receive the gospel. 

November 5: Today was the first time I have had an honest person, the other day we set up a return appointment with a lady we knocked into and today we were verifying our meeting time. She then texted us back saying she wasn't actually interested in hearing our message, it really was awesome to see someone who was honest about their desires instead of us going there and finding out she is not interested.

November 6: Some cool knocking happened today. We met a girl who practices Kabbalah and we gave her a BoM and she gave us a Zohar book. Awesome!! Today I also got told that I am part of a cult. Did you guys know that I'm part of cult? I certainly didn't until this lady told me, I reassured her thought that I actually was not part of a cult but she wouldn't listen to a thing we said. Today we offered a prayer with a lady but she would only let us do it if she could pray for us as well. Cool thing was it wasn't a repetitious rote prayer but a prayer kind of like how we offer it so that was pretty cool.

November 7: Today was Travis's baptism - he is being taught by the Creole Delray Elders. I got to give the talk at his baptism (there were to be two speakers but because of shortage of time I gave the 30 second talk). Now for the most important part of the week....the Turkey Derby!

​We made a totally awesome pink brick car! It has graphite sparkles because one of the members in our ward helped us grease our wheels so that it would go faster so that we could possibly win. We used pennies we collect from the ghetto as our weights. Though our car looks totally ratchet (ghetto) it was totally awesome and we took 3rd place out of the 16 cars we were racing with. More important to note is we beat the Elders!!!! This was a really big deal for the ward and everyone was cheering on the Elders and the Sisters but Girl Power won in the end and it was awesome. We almost beat the fastest car and only lost to it barely so we could have won the whole event.

November 8: Today we went to go meet an old former investigator to see if she wants to learn again and guess what she was so excited to see us and to read the BoM again and she was excited to set up an appointment this week so we are excited for her. Her name is Jeanna (pronounced Jenna) and she has 3 cute little kids and is now married (she wasn't when she was dropped) so we are excited to work with her and help her progress towards baptism.

Overall an amazing week! 

These are some of the ratchet things we see in South Florida - holding your matress on the roof of your car.

Cutest little bird, it belongs to a less active we are working with and she let me hold it for a picture.

Love you all,

Sister Jennings

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Hearses Don't Pull U-Hauls

Why hello dearest family and friends its that time again another update!

October 26: Yeah P-day!!! Today we went to the beach (me, my companion, and the two sisters we live with) 
​It was seriously so much fun even though we can't touch the sand or the ocean. There was this cool pier that we could go and stand on and be semi-close to the ocean and feel the salt in the air and get a few splashes from the ocean. Cool experience happened while knocking: we knocked on this door and the lady said go away, so Sister King said we were only saying a short prayer and the lady still said go away. As we were walking away from the house the lady opened the door and said we could say a short prayer with her. Wow hearts do change when the spirit is involved. Sad news today Jesus (common spanish name) is going to Puerto Rico for the next few weeks to be with his family so we won't be able to teach him this week or the next few weeks.

October 27: Today we got a call from a guy named Gary who said that he wants to meet with the missionaries which is super cool because I've never gotten a referral like that so tomorrow we are going to go and teach him. While knocking today we met Randall and Chris (and their dog Mr. Bean) and they said something that really saddened me. They told us that we probably wouldn't want to pray with them because of the things they have done in their life and we told them no that God wants everyone to pray with them. So we ended up praying with them and it was a good experience for both of them. Just remember that when you don't feel like praying or you don't feel worthy to pray is when you need to pray the most because that is Satan working on you.

October 28: Today we got to teach Sarah a little bit and find out why she is hesitant about baptism. Her mom had told her that her church believes that after you are baptized you cannot sin anymore. We quickly assured Sarah that you can and will sin after your baptized but that's okay because we believe in the power of repentance. How sad would that be though to believe that you cannot sin after you have been baptized? Also today we got a huge downpour of rain like torrential style which I guess isn't supposed to happen in these winter months but I thought it was awesome because it was rain. Also we found real grass like Utah grass style not this weird weed like Florida grass and we definitely had to lay down in it and cherish the feeling of it.

October 29: Not a lot happened today but while knocking we found Art in the Alley #3 which was totally awesome so me and Sister King have decided that we want to find all of them because it was really the highlight of our day.

October 30: Yeah I have officially been on my mission for a month only 17 more to go!! Today Shane got baptized. Now before you get all excited he is not someone we've been teaching but our fellow sisters we live with taught him but it is still exciting to see the work in this area and to see the success. 

October 31: Happy Halloween!! (This is how you can tell we are not JWs because I absolutely love Halloween). Today we had so many appointments that I don't have any time to tell you about how awesome it was. Just know that we taught a lot of people and had an absolutely amazing day meeting people and teaching a lot of awesome people. 

November 1: Man I cannot believe that it is already November wow how time flies when you are on the errand of the Lord. Today we had another amazing 6 hours of church plus ward council in the morning plus breaking the fast with the YSA branch which was awesome. The YSA branch is absolutely amazing and they are so excited for missionary work. We also got to meet the Ocean kids, 3 kids who got baptized about a year ago. They haven't come to church in a while but they are still absolutely amazing and I know that they are going to start coming back to church soon and wonder why they ever stopped going because it is truly amazing.

Question time:

What is tracting like in your area? are the people polite or rude?: Tracting for us is knocking on doors and offering to say prayers with people in which we help them feel the spirit. Most people are nice and don't turn down a prayer but then there are some really rude people who think that by praying with us they are going to get converted or something and so they slam the door in our face. But it is a really religious area down here so most people willing pray with us and then sometimes from there we get new potential investigators.

How big is your area? How many wards or branches do you cover?: My area is the size of Delray Beach, Florida plus a little bit of Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. The area I serve in is half the size of our ward the Delray Beach Ward. (My area is called the Delray Beach South area). But we also serve part time over the YSA branch and so we can teach them anywhere in our Palm Beach Zone (we don't teach very many of them).

How much biking and is your bike really really fast?: I actually haven't used my bike yet because I am in a car area and we use our car and then walk from wherever we park to several different places. Though the elders in our area do use their bikes because we are short one car because it is being fixed right now so they should soon have a car as well.

Do you have ward mission leaders or do team ups?: We do have ward mission leaders and several ward missionaries though we (as the sisters) don't do very many team ups since the Sister Ward missionaries are very busy and don't have very much time to come out with us.

Tell me more about sister king, where she is from, how long she has been out, etc.?: Sister King hit her one year mark Thursday. She has served all over Southern Florida so far. She is from Logan, Utah and went to Southern Utah University (SUU) for a year studying Dance performance. She is a ballerina but does other dance as well. She likes to have a lot of fun and is notable in the mission for whitewashing (this is her 3rd time I think). 

How much support do you get from the members? Do you cook your own meals, eat at members, etc.?: We get a little support from the ward and they come out with us on occasion although our meal calendar is pretty empty except for Sundays. Though we do now have a meal appointment for Thanksgiving yeah!! So we largely cook for ourselves or go out to eat (since we live outside of our area).

Thanks everyone love you all!!

Also quick item of business I typed my address wrong last week (I have still been getting all my mail I promise)

Corrected Address:

2301 S. Congress Ave #113

Boynton Beach, Florida 33426

Ponderize Scripture this week: Nahum 1:7

Until next time,

Sister Jennings

Loco Lizard

Hey everyone! So I first want to comment on the title because its a big part of my life now. Back in Utah I had to worry about ants, mosquitoes, bees, and other annoying pests. Now days the pests in my life are lizards. There are lizards everywhere, they run everywhere, and when we walk at night I'm scared that I step on them everywhere. I'm not joking there are lizards everywhere and in every color, shape, and size. I feel like I'm in a Dr. Seuss book of lizards.

October 19: We have finally started finding people to teach!!! I'm so excited we've been knocking doors the past few days with absolutely no success and it has been a little discouraging and I've had some very fervent prayers with the Lord. And the Lord provides and this is truly #paradisecity. Today we met McFarlane and Jesus and they are both amazing. McFarlane is from Jamaica and has gone through some really tough stuff in life but despite all those challenges he never forsake God. He isn't a big fan of organized religion because he feels religion has mostly forsaken God for money and we told him that our church wasn't like that. Its awesome to think that our church is run by God and not by man. And Jesus is just amazing, he has been smoking cigarettes since he was 10 and now desires to quit smoking and we told him how the gospel can help. Also I forgot to mention that both of these amazing men live in a retirement community and just love it when we visit and come and teach them so that is an added blessing: someone excited when the Mormon missionaries come knocking on their door.

October 20: Once again God provides and he truly is a God of miracles. Today we found even more potential investigators and people to teach and it is such a blessing. We also went to the Gateway YSA Family Home evening activity and I love the YSA ward so much and they are just so excited for missionaries and to help progress the work in their area which is an added bonus for us as their part time missionaries.

October 21: Once again more miracles in finding people and I can tell that me and Sister King have been brought to Delray Beach to help it once again prosper because they haven't had a baptism since January and they are a really small ward and need the help of the Lord in expanding and strengthening their area of Zion. One funny one is Brother Allen (that's how he introduced himself after we introduced ourselves as Sister King and Sister Jennings) when we first knocked into him he didn't see me behind the door and so he invited Sister King in. When he turned back around he was like where did you come from and I said from behind the door. He then continued to get our names all mixed up calling me Sister King and Sister King he called Sister Jenny. He was just so funny as he talked to us about our names and the Book of Mormon and I can't wait to go back in a few weeks to see what he's read about the Book of Mormon and what he thinks of it.

October 22: Our first lesson with Jesus and he is awesome and has such a strong desire to stop smoking, come unto God, go to church, and read the Book of Mormon!!! Awesome!!

October 23: Member support in mission work is so essential. One of our biggest supporters is a teenager named Shonoka and she loves to go out with the missionaries. Tonight we had a lesson with some new potentials who are just so prepared and ready for the gospel (Lynchie and Sarah) and having a member there who was a recent convert was amazing. Lynchie and Sarah had questions about the gospel and Shonoka had previously had those same questions and was able to answer them perfectly. So challenge for the week: get more involved in the mission work in your area because member support is seriously so essential and it is the greatest blessing for the missionaries.

October 24: Seriously just abundant miracles as we find more and more people to teach. One of the miracles was Mercie. We knocked into Mercie and she invited us into her home, after saying a prayer Mercie confided in us something really cool. Mercie told us that she doesn't usually answer the door when people knock but for some reason she decided to and then when she gave us her contact information she once again confided in us that she usually doesn't give out the correct phone number when people ask but for some reason she did. It truly is a testament of the different spirit that we bring into people's lives and the Holy Ghost makes people do things that they wouldn't usually do and it is those things that truly bless us in the long run. We also got to attend a baptism for an investigator for the Creole Elders in our area. This is the first baptism in the ward for a long time and we are so excited to welcome Serge into the fold and watch him continue to learn and progress.

October 25: Today in church we learned a lot about the Just Serve program (justserve.org) if you haven't heard of it check it out because it is absolutely amazing. It is the Craig's list for service and it is hosted by the church. Basically its a place to find out about service opportunities in your area and I'm so excited because the missionaries will be allowed to use and so we will get to do even more service and hopefully that will give people a better impression of the missionaries that we aren't just door knockers like the Jehovah Witnesses but that we love God and Jesus Christ and all we want to do is serve and help our fellow man. Also my family would be so proud of me. Today we got a call from a member in our area and her friend (who is in our ward) is in the hospital and she wondered if we ccould go and visit her. And despite my fear and hatred of hospitals we went and I made it in, had a long talk with this 97 year old ward member, and made it out of the hospital all without passing out. Once again God qualifies whom he calls.

Well that's all for this week just a reminder that missionaries love emails and letters and it really makes our day/week to hear from all of you.

Love you all,

Sister Jennings

My address:
2031 S. Congress Ave. Apt #113 

Boynton Beach, FL 33426

#Paradise City

Hey ya'll long time no email. It has been forever especially with MTC p-day being Thursday then leaving for the field on Tuesday morning and the mission field p-day is on Monday. So its been like a week and a half without getting to email and receive emails and let me tell ya its been a long time and nothing makes a missionary happier than logging on to an email full of emails.

So here is a rundown of the week and wow let me tell ya I've seen so many miracles (I've also not seen all the miracles) that God has bestowed upon me so don't think that what I tell ya is all that is happening because as it says in Malachi 3:10 "there shall not be room enough to [write] it."

Friday October 9: We got to meet and hang out a little more with the awesome new district that I talked about in my last email. Man these guys are so cool and California, Colorado, and Missouri are so lucky to receive such awesome missionaries.

Saturday October 10: Erika told us that she didn't really care what God thought about her but what the people around her did, and this made us super sad because if you always compare yourself to the others around you then you will never be happy. We told her that as she impresses God she will impress the man that she wants to marry. But for everyone as we impress God we will make the friends and acquaintances that we need to because God puts the people in our life that we need to meet and as we strive to have a better relationship with him he will help us improve the other relationships in our life. Also as we taught Dawaun I learned that we need to follow all of the promptings that we receive and I missed an opportunity to help Dawaun because I didn't follow the prompting. But don't worry I repented and in my next several lessons with different investigators I followed the promptings and was blessed for it.

Sunday October 11: So we finally had a normal Sunday where we go to lots of meetings (as a Sister Training Leader you have to be a part of all the ward meetings). We also got to go walk up to the temple which was awesome. I love the temple and I love the peace that we can feel on temple grounds and the love of God that we can feel in his houses, so if you haven't been to the temple recently then you need to make an effort to get back to it because it is AWESOME!! Even better than going to just any temple, I got to go to Provo temple which is my temple! Also today we had sacrament and the 2 districts headed to Florida all got up and sang a special musical number The EFY Medley (if you don't know what it sounds like YouTube it), and it turned out amazing which was awesome because we really did not have a lot of time to practice singing it. Today we also had a departing devotional for all of us missionaries leaving the MTC and our leaving group was so big they had to put us in 2 rooms. There were 500 missionaries leaving Provo and headed out to the field to help the Lord do his work. That is amazing!!!

Monday October 12: Today was my last day in the MTC since we leave tomorrow morning very early to head to Florida. We got to practice teaching Less Actives and we were teaching Kara and JC (these are once again our teachers but when we walk in the room to teach they are no longer our teachers but our investigators). I learned while teaching JC that sometimes you need to be bold and those your teaching may not like the things you tell them but if they want their life to improve then they need to listen. Also our teacher shared an amazing scripture with us: Mosiah 18:30. "And now it came to pass that all this was done in [Florida], yea, by the waters of [Florida], in the forest that was near the waters of [Florida]; yea, the place of [Florida] , the waters of [Florida], the forest of [Florida], how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever." Man I am so excited to serve in Florida and I know that the Lord has prepared people for me.

Tuesday October 13: Leaving for Florida begins at 3:30 am, that's right as in the morning like before the sun early. We got to the airport and some nice people let me use their phone to call my family. So lesson for the day if you are ever in the airport and have a little extra time on your hands and you see a missionary let them use your phone because if they hadn't have let me use their phone I would not have been able to call my family. Also on our first flight we were traveling with a group of people going on a church history tour and the tour leaders were the writers of Meridian Magazine (an LDS magazine) and they took some photos of us and are going to be publishing them in their magazine (supposedly). So if you see the picture you should email or send it to me.

Wednesday October 14: Transfer day!! Found out I'm serving in Delray Beach South which is part of the Paradise City Zone so that is why its titled #Paradise City because that's where I'm at. My trainer is Sister King and she is awesome. Also we are whitewashing our area (they took both missionaries out and are putting two new missionaries in).

Thursday October 15: This is my first full day in the mission field! Found out that we will be doing a lot of knocking right now because we have absolutely no investigators. But hey that's okay because that means the Lord is just preparing some amazing people for us to teach. So funny story from knocking we were in this Haitian (kind of ghetto) area and there were a group of kids playing on the sidewalk and one of the kids ran up and gave me a hug. As we kept walking we overheard his friend say to him "Why did you hug a white person?". Hahaha kids are so funny but the cool thing was is they can see the light of Christ emanating from us and they want that.

Saturday October 16: I know I skipped Friday and that is because this is a ridiculously long email and we mainly experienced a few miracles while knocking (because we do a lot of knocking). Today we had a young woman from the ward come out with us and she loves coming out with the missionaries. Everyone, the missionaries love it when you volunteer to go out knocking, teaching, etc. with them. Also saw a funny sign  on a church board "If Satan offers you a treat, its a trick" so just remember that Halloween themed message because its true!

Well that's all I have time for and I know this was a really long email because I haven't had p-day in forever. Just know that I love all of you!

My New Address:

Sister Kelsey Jennings
2031 S. Congress Ave. Apt. 113

Boynton Beach, FL 33426

Love you lots,

Sister Jennings

Here are some photos:

Trio Companionship: Sister Olsen, Me, Sister Peart

MTC District: Elder Millard, Elder Turner, Elder Bean, Elder Shipaanboord, Me, Sister Olsen, Sister Peart

Florida Fort Lauderdale Missionaries (FFLM): Sister Peart, Sister Olsen, Me, Elder Welch, Elder Lewis, Elder Lloyd, Elder Deklerk

Me and my New companion Sister King