Church Callings

I was released from my calling as second counselor in the Young Women presidency today! On October 8, 2017 (the day of our primary program) I was released as the Primary President in the Santa Clara 5th Ward in sacrament meeting and then called as the First Counselor in the Young Women Presidency the same day. This is what I wrote in my journal: 

Brother Whitehead called and asked if he could come over and meet with me and Rick after conference. He extended a call for me to be the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency! It is funny because I have had a strong impression for some time that I would get called into the Young Women's presidency after I was released from primary. (I get released next Sunday --the 8th).

About 2 1/2 weeks ago I found out that the new YW President had been called and that it would be Julie Steel, who is currently serving as secretary of our primary presidency. I knew she was in the process of choosing her counselors and honestly expected to receive a calling shortly after that. But then days went by and it didn't happen. More time went by and I thought surely the presidency must be called by now and so I just figured my impression was off, which was fine since I was more than happy to take a break! 

Anyway, apparently my name had been the first one to come to Julie and wouldn't leave her mind, but when she submitted my name to the Bishopric they really tried to talk her out of it since I had just served as the Primary President for the past three years. They then gave her several other names to pray about. She took the names and prayed about them, but still came back with my name -- and again they were hesitant. This happened a couple of times. Finally they said, "Are you sure?" She said, "yes, I am sure!" They said, "then we will stop trying to interfere with your inspiration!!"

So even though I am nervous and know it is a time consuming calling, I really feel like it is where I am supposed to be -- and it will be fun being in there with my two girls! I will be over the Miamaids and Janelle will be a Miamaid for another year and Jaiden will join her in six months. So that will be nice!! 

I loved serving with the Young Women in our ward and felt like Miamaids were the perfect age to work with! I enjoyed working with Julie Steel, Elsha Gubler, and Sue Gates in the presidency. A little less than a year later, in August 2018, a new ward was created taking some from the 1st Ward and some from the 5th Ward. So everyone was released from their callings. A few days later I was called to be in the Young Women's presidency in our new ward (the 17th Ward) only this time I was called to be the second counselor over the Beehives. I was excited to still be in Young Women, but was a little disappointed (at first) that I would be working with the Beehives instead of the Miamaids. But I soon came to see the advantages of working with the younger class and enjoyed the enthusiasm and excitement of the new girls. I also loved working with my new presidency: Kaci Esplin, Heather Ovard, and Hadli Gates. They were all such wonderful ladies! Some time later Heather received a Stake Calling and was replaced by Brooke Ence. She was awesome to work with as well! 

I enjoyed my experience in Young Women and am glad that I got to go to Girls' Camp with both the 5th Ward and the 17th Ward! Of course this past year has been really different, due to Covid, and so we didn't have Girls' Camp and weren't able to meet with our girls very much. Most of us had been serving with the Young Women for over three years counting the service in both wards and we knew that we would be getting released soon. I had mixed feelings with this. I knew it was time and change is good, but I also knew I would miss the girls and working with such amazing ladies! 

Bishop called our presidency in to his office to thank us for our service over the past few years. I thought it was neat that he did that -- it kind of gave us some closure to our callings before we were officially released in sacrament meeting. Later on the Bishop and his wife brought over some gluten free cookies and a thank you card. That was so sweet of them! Kaci also brought over a thank you card and the Stake Young Women's president also brought over a card along with a Chick-fil-a gift card. Then the new presidency and the girls brought over a candy bar poster on Wednesday night. I felt loved and appreciated! I was excited to learn that the new president would be my very good friend, Allison Williams. I am excited for her. The girls are in great hands! 

 

Jensen Update -- February 2021!

*Jase and Ellen publicly announced their baby news!! We are excited!! 

 *We had several Zoom meetings -- interpreter workshop, Stake Conference, Dual Language Immersion meeting, Stake Young Women's training -- Rick also had several other training and meetings over zoom.

*Janika and Brandon are busy with their house plans as well as Brandon's job and Janika's practicum as an elementary school counselor.

*Jenna did the Geography Challenge for the 6th grade and was one of the top three winners. All three will compete at the District Level next month.

*Jaiden and Janelle had fun performing singing valentines with the Madrigals.

*Jaiden was asked to sing with a lady from our former ward at a funeral and also in church the next day. Jaiden, Janelle, and their friend, Emily, sang in church last week and will sing again in the other ward in a couple of weeks.  

* Visit from the Westra cousins! We were able to watch Adria play soccer and the cousins had a blast together! They shared in our Valentine's breakfast and went on an ABC driving scavenger hunt! 

*Family History Scavenger Hunts from Chris and Grandma Westra. The kids had fun with those! Thanks for putting those together and for the incentives!! 

*I did lots of interpreting and Rick did lots of work as part of his new responsibility as ASL coordinator. He is trying to persuade the "powers that be" to allow for a Deaf Youth Conference this summer. 

*Josh refereed a few games at the soccer tournaments. He tries out for the high school soccer team tomorrow! Wish him luck! 

*Josh spends WAY too much time online chatting with a certain girl from his school over email. He doesn't have a phone yet and this makes me not in any hurry for him to get one! They hang out a lot, but only in groups of friends. But still...I am not ready for this!

*Jaiden and Janelle finally were able to go to Sadies and had a fun time with their dates and group. (More on the blog).

*Jared got in a car accident bringing Josh to school and totalled his car! (Jared was at fault). He had "liability only" insurance on his car and so he didn't get any replacement money from the insurance company. Sad! (More on the blog)

*Rick and I went car shopping and ended up buying a 2014 Subaru Outback for me and selling my car to Jared. The car had low mileage and was owned by an older couple who were the only owners. I love it! 

*Janelle had a Madrigal Concert. Jaiden was supposed to go too but couldn't miss dance again.  

*We finished up our "LOVE CD!" 

*Jaiden applied for the Governor's Honors Academy at SUU. It is competitive, but those who get accepted go to a 9 day academy in the summer (which is a leadership conference kind of like EFY). It is fairly expensive, but those who get accepted and attend get a full tuition four year scholarship at SUU. 

*Jaiden is also (probably) applying for the Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Competition (involving talent, interview, fitness...)  It sounds like a lot of work, but I think she would do great! These are both new things that I hadn't heard about until this past month.

*I was released from my calling from the Young Women's Presidency. They changed the whole YW and primary presidencies. I have been in YW for several years now and so it is time, but I will miss serving with them -- especially since I was able to go with my three girls! 

*Jared and his friends were able to find an apartment across from DSU campus and they moved in last night! It is already clear that he is going to love it! They will have a lot of fun! 

Moving Out: Jared

 Apartment #10 Boys! They are a good looking crew! 

Sleep!!

This poor girl stays up way too late! She is usually the last one to bed and the first one up! Sometimes I wonder if she just doesn't need as much sleep as the rest of us...but then I find her like this! 

Jenna Curlers

We found a bag of these darling homemade curlers that Janika made many years ago and decided to try them out! 

Sadies Group Pictures

We got the Sadies group pictures back tonight. They turned out really cute! Pictured...

Jaiden Jensen and Nick Renstrom, Kierra Campbell and Conner Ringwood, Emily Williams and Caleb Slater, Janelle Jensen and Clay McFadden, Ellie Kenworthy and Adam Dunn

Sadies

The girls FINALLY had their Sadies date tonight! The girls asked their dates clear last September! The dance was supposed to be in November (I think) but was postponed due to Covid until now. Here is how they asked and how they were answered...

Jaiden asked Nick Renstrom...

Nick answered Jaiden...

Janelle asked Clay McFadden...

Clay answered Janelle...

For their day date they played Chopped. Two couples were at our house and three couples were at the Williams' house. The ingredients were: canned chicken, funyuns, orange bell pepper, wonton wrappers, apricot jam, and cream cheese. I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but the kitchen sure smelled good! Emily and her date won the competition...

The judges...

I will post the group pictures when I get them. After chopped the kids went on a hike, took group pictures, ate dinner (waffles at the Williams), and then went to the dance which was held at the high school. It was supposed to be outside, but they moved it inside. Then they all came to our house to play a very noisy game of Jackbox!! 

Car Accident

Jared called me this morning and said that he had just been in a car accident. He was driving Josh to school and looked down for a second to see if he had brought his ear buds (he was planning on going to the gym after dropping him off). When he looked back up the car in front of him had stopped suddenly at the crosswalk and Jared plowed right into him. The car he hit belonged to the older brother of one of Josh's friends. Josh and his friend hopped out of their cars and headed to school -- leaving their older brothers to deal with the accident. Jared called me and then called the police. I headed over and the other mom (who I also know) was there too. She said that this is the third time her son has been hit like this! 

 

They filled out the police report and I called Rick. Then came even worse news. Rick told me that Jared had "liability only" insurance on his car. This means that our insurance would cover the other car, but not Jared's car. I just felt sick when he told me this! The car was not drivable and I had to call a tow truck to tow the car to the body shop in town. I called the body shop and told them to call me with the estimate. A couple of hours later the body shop called me to say it would be $8500.00 to fix!! What? Jared only paid $6000.00 for the car and so obviously it wasn't worth it to fix it. 

So now Jared has a totaled car and no insurance money to pay for it. I feel so bad for him! Here he has been working so hard and was in a great financial place. He was able to pay for the car in cash when he bought it right after his mission and it has been a great car for him these past eight or nine months. So now he is out several thousand dollars and has no car. Jared said this was pretty much the worst day of his life! He just signed a contract to move into an apartment near campus with friends in a week, so now he will need to pay for housing as well as a new car. 

Jared called the body shop to see if they would buy the car for parts and they said they don't do that but referred him to some other places. Jared made some phone calls and found one that would take it for $300.00. Better than nothing I guess. Tough day -- and expensive lesson learned!!  

The Grip

Guess what? We can start having Young Women activities again!! Yay! Last week we went to Kaci's house and cut our tons of paper hearts and then heart attacked several ward member's houses, leaving bags of chocolates on their porch. Tonight we went to this new place called "The Grip!" The girls had a great time! 

Jenna Geography Champ!!

Jenna has been practicing diligently the past few weeks for the Geography Challenge and the test was today. It was a written test of 150 Geography Questions. Jenna has all 150 answers memorized! She felt good about the test and said that she thought she got all of them correct! A few days later Jenna emailed me this picture from school! I asked what place she got and she said that they just chose the top three students -- they didn't say which came in first, second, or third. All three will represent their school in District in a few more weeks. That means -- more studying! 

She already knows the answers to level 1: (150 geography questions), and level 2 (landforms and geography terms), but now she needs to learn level 3 (Nations and National Capitals -- Europe's Western and Eastern Nations, Middle East and Northern Africa), level 4: Europe, Northern Africa, and Middle Eastern Mountain Ranges, Peninsulas, Rivers, Seas, and Oceans, and level 5: Various geography questions. Level 1 and 2 contains a lot of memorizing, but at least the students know exactly what to expect. The tricky thing about levels 3-5 is that they don't give out specific labeled maps or anything and so there is no way to know what exactly they will ask!

 

Valentine's Day and Cousins!

The Westras came down this weekend for Adria's soccer tournament and our girls were thrilled to be able to spend time with their cousins! They painted canvases, painted nails, played games, made bracelets, ate snacks, watched shows (we all watched the newest episode of Wanda Vision), went on a scavenger hunt, recorded a funny podcast in the studio, jumped on the tramp, and watched Adria's soccer game. It was a fun weekend! 

Sunday morning we woke up to our traditional Valentine's big breakfast cooked by Rick and Shane! Muffins (including sausage muffins, which were kind of random, but actually tasted pretty good), hashbrowns, homemade yogurt, and fruit. We also received our love notes and candy! 

Jaiden left right after breakfast to sing in our old ward. Christin Olson had asked her to sing with her at a funeral yesterday and in their ward today. So Jaiden left at 8:30 to go sing with her and the other girls and I watched her musical number over zoom. They sounded great! 

The girls decided to go do an A-B-C scavenger hunt where you drive around and take pictures by signs starting with each letter of the Alphabet. I told them to be home by noon to get ready for church and Jenna sends me the following text from Jaiden's phone: 

I was freaking out a little over the first text, but then realized she was kidding when I got the second text! Here is their picture collage! 

       Then we went to church and then to Young Women where Jenna and Clarissa gave a great lesson...

Then Jaiden, Janelle, and Emily practiced their musical number for next week and I took a nap!

 Janelle headed to Mission Prep and Jenna and Rella painted their nails and the rest of us finished up dinner. We had a delicious dinner of Cafe Rio Pork (prepared and cooked by Rick). Yum! Then Shane and Alicia and I went to go visit Aunt Sharon and Uncle Kent and pick up some family history pictures that Chris is going to scan. I haven't seen them for a long time and it was fun to visit! The kids played and did face masks and played games and watched home videos while we were gone. 

It was a great Valentine's Day!!