Dec. 11th, 2012

Hey how's it going?                                                         Dec. 11, 2012
Thanks for the Christmas package!! I really enjoyed the pictures with the Merry Christmas signs, and the paper Ornaments you guys wrote messages on. I also like that piano CD, it's pretty good. I can't wait to get the Christmas CD’s you guys sent me. I've got all my Christmas decorations up, I've got a few Christmas cards and I'm hanging them up by my desk. I sent about 50 Christmas cards out last week! Ok here's how my week went. Monday- did the regular P-day stuff. Then the other Elders came over and we wrote letters etc. and my companion made chocolate cookies for us. Then that night we had FHE with Bishops family. We had arranged for Cinquetta and her two boys to come. Sister Nielsen taught the lesson, it was on being reverent in church. Then she gave some stuff to Cinquettas boys for them to bring to church the next Sunday to help keep them quiet. FHE went really well everyone enjoyed it and the boys were able to play with the Nielsen’s kids. Tuesday- just stop by's in the morning. I got my package from Dad with the giant map of Philly. Thanks! I like it a lot. That night we had Brother and Sister Carter come with us to an appointment but it fell through. So we went over to a semi less active couples home and they let us in. The two couples had a lot in common and we just let them talk to each other. The Carter's invited the couple over to watch the Christmas Devotional because they hadn’t got a chance to watch it so they recorded. So that was awesome of them to invite the couple over. Wednesday- we met with this lady that ran into the other missionaries the other day. We had stopped by yesterday and set up an appointment with her. Turns out she's a former investigator from about a year ago. But we got to know her and taught her a little and we were able to set her with a baptism date of January 20th. During our break I made the cake that Zoe had sent me for my Birthday. That night we went and taught Cinquetta, we taught her the Plan of Salvation. Which went very well. She is super solid right now. She's doing her reading in the Book of Mormon; she really likes our church and what she's learning. Our other appointment that night fell through. But the Zone Leaders called us and had us go to the church and set up some chairs and tables for our Zone Training the next day. Thursday- we had our Zone Training in the morning. The zone leaders had a member come decorate the room we were in, so there were Christmas lights and small Christmas trees etc. It was pretty cool, and we had a good zone training. I had the idea to make a Christmas card from us 4 missionaries to give to ward members and people were teaching. So after zone training we went and took a pic. I made a blank banner for us to hold up, and then I added words on top of it. So that night most all of our appointments fell through. So we went over to "Moms" house and she helped us order prints of our cards for us. Friday- we went and saw Nick, he is a recent convert. His dad was hit and killed in a car Accident the night before. So we went over to talk to him and see how he's doing etc. Knowing the Plan of Salvation has helped him a lot. We taught Debbie that night with Brother and Sister Arthur. We taught the Plan of Salvation which went good. But Debbie is really confusing us, she’s really open and fine with being baptized, she’s reading her Book of Mormon, but she hasn’t come to church yet! It’s been like a month and 1/2. She teaches disabled kids at her catholic church, which ends the same time that our church starts. So she's doing a really good thing over there. But she doesn’t realize that if she’s baptized that she would have to start coming to our church, and we don’t know how to tell her that without offending her or something.  Saturday- we had our Ward Christmas Party Breakfast in the morning. Us missionaries did the serving. We had pancakes and muffins, fruit, bacon etc. We had a good turn out.  Cinquetta and her kids came too! Then we taught Vernice after the Party, we taught her the Quit Smoking program. Then we went and Saw Nick again, talked to him and his family. They were doing pretty good. Then we had stop by's that night. Then we had a special choir practice at a member’s home, because our Christmas program for sacrament was the next day. (And yes I am part of the ward choir.) All 4 missionaries are, the Ward mission leaders wife is the Choir Director and plus they need us and its fun. Sunday- like I said was our Christmas program so we took up most of the meeting with singing our songs. It went good. Cinquetta and her 2 boys were at church again. She told us she really likes our church. Nick brought some of his non-member friends to church. And the Gospel principle’s lesson (which we taught) was on the spirit world. Which was perfect because his dad had just died. And we had also just taught this to Cinquetta. After Church we met with Bishop and went through the ward list, he marked who was less active, who was Active etc. So now I’m going to map everyone out on my GPS etc.  We saw Vernice again that night, we read 1 Nephi 7 with her, which she really liked a lot it was about repentance and she realized that she needed to change some things in her life. And we went over to Nicks house, and talked with them and shared a message. His brothers who are just a little younger then him - 22 and 19, aren’t members. But his brother has really liked us coming over lately. I think this will be a good opportunity for us to start teaching him!
Monday - We didn’t have our regular P-Day because we had a special zone Conference.  Elder Paul Pieper from the Quorum of the 70 came and talked to us. It was really good!!! We had 2 ½ Zones there. I will probably tell you more about it next week. Were also have our Christmas Zone Conference next week. That one will be a more relaxed fun zone conf. with a talent show, movie etc. It's been rainy the last few days and the temperature has gone up and down a lot.
I’m going down to Center City today to see if I can get some small gifts for you guys. Kylee I’m expecting a letter from you soon, well within the next few weeks.
Well have a great week!!! Happy Almost Merry Christmas!
Elder Jeremy Jensen