Podcast of Sister Jaiden Jensen's Experiences in Mongolia!

Listen or download HERE!! 

https://familystorypodcast.com/returned-missionary-podcasts

Scroll to Jaiden's picture (right now it is at the top) and then click on the "play" or "download" button! 

 

Janelle MTC!!!

Last night was our final night with Janelle before she heads to the MTC! Rick gave her a beautiful Father's blessing and we had everyone write her a letter that we would give her the next day. This morning the kids said their goodbyes and then the three of us headed to Provo! She read the letters on the way there and then Rick had me read some of them out loud. Of course I blubbered like a baby!! I especially liked Ellen's letter -- she had lots of solid advice for Janelle! 

We stopped at the Golden Corral in Orem for lunch and I ran into Mark Tarr, an old friend from my Snow College days! He and I were in the LD Singers together and his wife was in LD's with my sister, Jen. They were there sending their daughter off to the MTC too! So that was fun to visit with them. It turns out that their son when on a deaf mission like me and is currently attending Snow College. Small world! 

We went to the Provo temple to take a few pictures. I would have liked to take more, but we were running a little late by this time and Janelle was anxious to get on her way! She has been waiting for this moment for a long time and she is ready!! She will be such an amazing missionary!! Good luck, Janelle, we love you!!!

Chris sent me this one... (pretty cool!)

Chicago Trip (By Janelle)

Visiting Chicago was seriously so fun and such an awesome experience! Me (Janelle), Jared, Jenna, and Dad all went. We started out by heading to the Vegas airport bright and early at 3:00 am on Thursday, October 14th. That was also my birthday, and if waking up at three isn’t the best present ever, I don’t know what is! We flew to Chicago and got there around noon, and then took a train called the Blue Line to downtown Chicago. There was quite the scenery and the buildings were all HUGE! There were so many buildings and the architecture was super well done. We walked down to the hotel and dropped some stuff off and then walked to a restaurant called Portillos. It was really good, we had Italian beef sandwiches that you dip in gravy, and they have cake blended into a shake! It was bomb.

After that we walked to lots of different places like the church they have there, the bean (which was super cool but my dad announced that it was my birthday and at least 100 people started singing to me), and a bunch of other parks. It was super cool. We also walked down by Navy Pier and the view of Lake Michigan was gorgeous. Chicago honestly did a really good job of being a big city but still having clean parks and involving nature. Then we went to Chinatown which was fun! We didn’t stay for very long but bought some souvenirs there which was cool. Then we took the red line back and crashed at the hotel! It was a great day! We did lots of walking (about 9 miles and poor Jenna was complaining for at least 8 of them) and got some super pretty views. 

The next day (Friday, October 15) we got up and ran to the store to get breakfast, and then we were able to go to the Chicago temple! It was really pretty and really good to be there, and this was Jenna’s first time which was exciting. After we went to the temple we went to a restaurant called Giordano's to get some of Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza. It was really good. We had originally been planning to visit six flags on Saturday but decided that we would end up going on Friday night instead. So we chilled at the hotel for a bit and then went to six flags! It was fright fest and super crowded so we didn’t get to ride very many rides, but it was still fun! My favorite that we went on was called Goliath. There weren’t too many scary people around so it wasn’t really a big deal. I don’t like scary people so this was definitely preferable :). Then we went back to the hotel! It was a way fun day!

On Saturday (October 16) Dad had decided he wanted to go to a deaf convention while we were here, so we dropped him off and parked at the church and then walked to the Chicago zoo. We didn’t get to stay super long but it was cool and free which makes it way more cool! We saw zebras, flamingos, monkeys, even snow leopards! And a red panda that was really cute :). When Dad called us saying he was done we headed back to the car to pick him up (Which was quite a ways away so poor dad had to wait for like an hour). Anyway, we picked him up and then we were able to go to the North Side of Chicago and the very edge of the city. It was really cool! It was super diverse and there were so many different languages that were being spoken. Then we went to the Cub Stadium and then we went and got ice cream at a place called Oberweis that was really good and then we got to see Jared’s mission president, President and Sister Shumway. They were really cool people and their goodness just radiated from them. It was super cool to meet them! After that we went back to the hotel! It was a fun day!

On Sunday we spent the day in the south side of Chicago and started out by going to Febbie Shola’s house, who is an awesome Nigerian lady. We couldn’t stay for long because she had to work but she gave us TONS of Nigerian food and a gross soda called Malta. We took it back to the church to eat, it was baked chicken with jollof rice and plantains. It was pretty good! We got to meet Darlene and go to church (and in our free time we went to Obama’s house) and it was really cool! Jared and Darlene were able to share their testimonies in church to fill up time and they were both so powerful. Everyone applauded after Darlene which in itself shows some differences between church here and in St. George haha.

 After church we went to Darlene’s house in the Lowe building and were able to talk to her and hear her conversion story. It was really special, she’s super sweet. She has five children: Sharon, Michael, Goodluck, Goodness, and Goodnews. Gotta love those names! All of the kids were super cute! They also gave us a bunch of Nigerian meat pies, which were actually really good! It was fun to meet with them. Last we visited Abiola and his family, and they were super awesome too! We told them we didn’t need more food, but alas, they still came out with a huge tray of food that we had to eat. They were awesome though and gave dad some traditional Nigerian clothes! It was really cool to meet these people and get a feel for their culture. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Darlene Gaston (one of our favorite people!)

Church History Trip -- Sister Jensen

Rick, Jared, and Janelle were able to see Sister Jensen today!  Rick had this church history trip with the kids planned for months before Sister Jensen received her mission call.  So when Sister Jensen got called to the Nebraska, Omaha mission, Rick was thrilled because this was the last stop of their church history tour and he was hoping to be able to visit her.  He also knew that it might not work out, however, and he was fine with that too. 

Sister Jensen was assigned to Sioux City, Iowa, which would be an hour an a half trip from where Rick and the kids were staying.  Rick had talked to her mission president about it and he said that it would be okay to set up a visit with her.  Rick wrote Janika about it but she said that she didn't want to see them.  Rick was disappointed, but dropped the idea. 

So instead, he stayed with his normal scheduled itinerary, which was to bring the kids to the Winter Quarter's Temple in Omaha, Nebraska to do baptisms for the dead and then go to the trail center visitor's center.  He sent a Facebook message to Sylvia, who Sister Jensen and Sister Riggs had the wonderful opportunity of teaching and seeing baptized two weeks ago, and asked if she would like to  meet him and his family at the temple on Saturday to do baptisms. She replied back saying that she was planning to be at the temple that day and she was going to be there with Sister Jensen and Sister Riggs!  We wondered how that could be since the temple is pretty far and not even in Sister Jensen's current area. 

We learned that her mission is encouraging new converts to go do family history and go to the temple as soon as they can and when they go to the temple, their missionaries can go with them and help them through the process.  How exciting is that!  So Sister Jensen learned that her Dad and brother and sister would be there at the temple the same day she was going to be there.  She prayed about what to do since it would be awkward to try and totally avoid them. She felt like it would be okay to see them and got permission from her mission president.  

So they did meet up and Rick and the kids were able not only meet Sister Jensen and her companion, but also Sylvia, and two wonderful families from Sister Jensen's area who also came to the temple with them.  Rick told me that the experience was AWESOME!!  He was able to baptize Sylvia while she did baptisms for her grandmother and Jared was able to be baptized in proxy for her grandfather.  Rick said that the spirit was so strong and that it was just an absolutely perfect way to end their church history experience.

We feel so humbled and grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and allowing to share in this remarkable experience.  We have seen so many amazing miracles and blessings happen through missionary work. We want to thank all of the wonderful missionaries who are serving the Lord.  It makes us excited to serve our own mission again someday!