News From Jennie.

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated this. Life has been a little crazy lately. I will try to do it more regularly again. I will just post her most recent emails, it you want to know more I can forward you all of her emails. Just let me know at ocelotqueen@yahoo.com

So this week has been insane. Sister Bowen was having a really tough

time because I'm not a super easy person to approach and so she was

carrying a lot of the burdens on her own, on top of which she was sick

so we spent most of the first half of the week inside working on

stuff. Which was pretty good. We were able to work things out and

we're doing much better now which is good because we both suspect

we'll be staying in Park View for another Transfer.

So the amazing things that have happened this week:

First we really only tracted for two days and in those two days we

made 38 contacts and placed 12 Book of Mormons which is only one less

Book than we placed in the entire last week. The best part of that is

that apparently the Zone Challenge this week (we're doing weekly and

daily zone challenges to help drive the work) was contacts and we took

first place, somehow. So now we are in second place overall which is

awesome since we haven't won any daily challenges. And super fun part

is if we can win we get to either have dinner with President or Lunch

with the office sisters. We're shooting for Lunch with the office

sisters because they are a hoot.

Second (which is both good and crazy) Yesterday we were called by the

Upland 5th ward missionaries because one of their investigators is

moving up here so their bishop told them she needed to be baptized up

here. So they told us they want to do the baptism on Friday at 7 and

we need to provide the people, the talks, and the music. So we've been

working like crazy to plan a baptism for Friday for somebody we

haven't met. We are hoping to meet her Wednesday by going and helping

her and her husband move into their new apartment. But it's been an

adventure because we're trying to plan Kims baptism for next weekend,

which is kind of on the backburner for now but it's still been good.

Third is I finally figured out a way to stay focused during my

prayers. Which helps me remember to say them. I hadn't really thought

about this before but it seems like, with hindsight, that the reason I

had such a hard time saying my prayers is because I can never seem to

stay focused. I would start a prayer and then the next thing I

realized I was thinking about this movie preview I had seen and I had

no idea how I had gotten there and couldn't remember if I had closed

my prayer before going there. But now I've picked a random notebook

and turned it into my prayer journal. So I'm writing out my prayers so

if I do get distracted I can figure out where I was and it helps keep

me from getting distracted. Plus it helps keep me focused and

listening for answers at the end. Now I just wish I could do that when

I have to give prayers in public because I still really dislike

praying in front of people. :P

So sadly I haven't had time to work on my 3-D city lesson this week

but hopefully I will next week so that I can get it finished and work

out the little kinks I have left. But I am still really excited about

it and can't wait to show you pictures of it.

Well the work is going well with all that tracting we found a few

people who are really solid potential investigators and we have set

appointments with two of them and have a few more to follow up with so

hopefully this week will go really well and we'll be able to have some

more people to teach.

On Sunday for the third hour Bishop did it on Missionary week so

Sister Bowen and I bore our testimonies and talked about the

importance of Member Missionary work in that. And then Bishop talked

about the Ward Mission plan and what the members need to do to get

that going. And starting next Monday the ward is doing a 40 day fast

where a family signs up to fast for one day. And they have 40 families

do that for 40 consecutive days so it will be interesting to see what

they outcome of that will be. I'm hoping it will help them find the

desire to help us find more people to teach.

I think that pretty well sums up my week.

First Week In California!

So the mission has been great. My companion is Sister Bowen and when I was meeting with President Godwin before meeting her he told me she was calm, well he was wrong. She's a lot like me.

 

So I assume Sister Godwin told you that we stayed at their house the first night in, so now I've had a co-ed sleepover, yup just like that. It wasn't really a big deal but it was kind of fun to just hang out with the Elders and talk to them for most of the evening. So that was fun, and then we got waffles for breakfast and they were ok, they weren't very crispy sadly. Funny story with that, I mentioned I liked my waffles crispy at the table where I was sitting with Elder Whiting and Elder Dixon, and Elder Whiting told me I'd have to come visit his house sometime and try his mom's waffles cause they are super crispy. It was pretty funny. I miss those two
Elders quite a bit, we had lots of fun.

 

So I met my companion Wednesday afternoon and we didn't talk a lot, we stuck to our comfort zones pretty well, I hung out with my Elders and she hung out with the other Trainers, but we talk now and have lots of fun. I'm super grateful for her cause we really do think a like and it's working well for training.

 

Ok area, I'm in the Park View ward/area in the Victorville Stake/Zone, so I'm up in the high desert and if you ignore the Joshua trees (I'll try to send you a picture of them later) it basically looks like home. It's kind of nice. And our ward is pretty amazing. They are really willing to help us in anyway they can and they want us to have a member go with us to every lesson so if that works out I think it will really help any investigators we get feel welcomed and wanted in the ward. And while our area is good it's been kind of trying this week. We're both brand new in this area so we don't really know anyone and there weren't any progressing investigators so we're working from a blank slate, which is good in some ways and hard in others. We went through the ward list the other day and color-coded it so we knew who was active, less-active, and part member families. And it's pretty depressing I really hope that our ward doesn't have as many less-actives as this one does and if it does something needs to be done about it, because it's just no right. And the other trying thing is that we're living in Hesperia which is about 30 minutes away from our area, they might be moving us closer this week but we haven't heard for sure about that. So who knows what will happen there.

So when we moved into our area it was kind of a circus. Sister Skinner was on the dinner calendar and it said she was bringing us dinner but she never came so we brought our stuff in and went to Taco Bell for dinner my first night. Always . And right before we got there we got a call from the Zone Leaders telling us that the three sisters who were in Mesa Linda needed to be moved out of where they were so they were putting them in with us. And of course they got there right as we sat down to eat. So it was around 8 at night and I still hadn't had dinner and I was kind of starving. But we're living in a huge empty house that someone is renting to the church and I am currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor. And since the house is practically empty and ,large and new with all wood floors it's super echoy, but I kind of like that we just have it to the five of us it's been nice. And it came with a washer and dryer so we won't have to go hunt down a laundromat, at least for this week.

 

Oh so little random thing; they have a Cresh Festival out here, it's a Christmas Festival and a lot of different people are involved and the mission is doing a missionary choir and I decided to participate and I'm doing well. I don't know for sure if I hit it today, but I think I hit the high G in Away in a Manger while we were practicing today, so what do you know apparently I can kind of sing :). But yea it was fun, I was able to see a couple of the Elders from my MTC district there and that was nice.

 

I went tracting this week and that was interesting, yes I did speak and approach people. We met one person who took a Book of Mormon and she was interesting. She's a Catholic Hippie little Black Lady and we're going to see her again on Saturday so hopefully it will go well.

 

And Thanksgiving, we had two dinners one at the Bishops so we were able to meet him and then one at the Ochoa's. The Ochoa's are a less active family and they are pretty interesting. One of the rules there is what happens at the Ochoa house stays at the Ochoa house so if we ever need to just relax we can come over and watch TV or use the computer or just whatever we want. O.o yes that's the first thing they told us. But they're nice people, just a little different. P.S. I learned there that they make gravy that you just pour out of a can, yea that was different. So as for food Bishops food was better but it was all good.

So yea my address is 8280 Utica Ave Ste. 150 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. Note that will be changing here pretty soon since the mission office is moving, but I'll get the new one to you as soon as I have it.

Sister Coon.

More News From the MTC

So this week we had two new girls assigned to our room and their nice, but kind of loud and miss having my bottom bunk to use for letter writing and relaxing between activities. But it's all good. My district is still really fun and I'm sad that we'll be split up next week as 5 of us go to Montana and 6 of us go to California. That'll be a bummer especially since I'm losing Sister Schofield and I've really come to appreciate here over the past few weeks.

So I was reading in 2nd Nephi chapter 2 today and I came across a verse verse 21 that said that God elongates our days for the purpose of repentance. I thought it was really interesting and am now wondering if maybe part of the reason the average death age has risen is because the gospel is spreading across the world and God wants everyone to have a better chance of being able to hear the gospel and take that opportunity to repent so that they can return to him. I had another scripture I had wanted to share but now I don't remember what it was which is kind of unfortunate.

I've been having so much fun with my district the Elders are amazing. There's one of them Elder Whiting who is pretty quiet about sharing his ideas but I sat by him in class the other day and he shared a few with me and man they were impressive. He has a way of putting things so simply and clearly that I really feel like I need to improve on that.

I've been speaking more in the lessons we teach and I feel like it's really been helping our teaching to go better. The balance really works better that way. Cause while Sister Heward is amazing sometimes I feel like she's jumps past things too quickly and we miss opportunities so I'm trying to keep from doing that so much. But it's not doing so great. I'll have to keep working on it.

So, we got a new investigator this week named Randy and he is amazing he has such a desire to know God and to do what's right it's awesome. The second time we met with him Sister Heward asked him if he would read a scripture and he explained that he's had an eye disease since he was ten that left him legally blind at twelve. As he was describing it I realized he was talking about macular degeneration, what Grandma Florence had. And I was floored I just can't imagine losing your sight in that way at the age of 10.

But the lessons with him went really well once he stopped talking long enough that we could get in the messages that we had prepared.

Oh and I've always thought i had a pretty solid grasp of gospel doctrines and all that but now I'm realizing that there is so much more I don't know. And that we don't really discuss in church.

So in good news this week I had two good moments in class. The first one we do an exercise where we have to sum up the entire lesson discussion in 5-6 sentencs and this time it was on the plan of salvation so I wrote it up and was called on to share.
and after I shared the teacher, Brother Farley, said "ok lets turn to page __( I don't remember what it was) where the apostles quoted sister Coon. I was kind of embarressed but it still felt good. So yea. And then the other day we were talking about repentance and that if you really want people to repent you have to teach them what it is, not just the process you go through. So after ignoring the feeling that I needed to say something for a while i finally raised my hand and said "you know you've truly repented when that guilt is finally gone. You never realize just how much weight you had been carrying around till it's gone, and once it's gone it's the best feeling you could ever have." And it just came out well and made sense so that was my second good moment.

Well I guess I don't really have anything else to say about my week.

Glad that you're still doing well Dad, sorry your boxes aren't going as well as you want but you'll figure it out I'm sure.

Looking forward to getting my hoodie. I need a comfort object and the blankets here just really aren't comfortable :P i really was hoping for it for today because last p-day was kind of cold, but turns out today is a really nice day so it all worked out ok.

Love you,

Sister Coon

P.S. The food here is awful, you think it's good the first couple days but then after that you realize that it's actually awful on your digestive system and wish there was somewhere else you could get food. Honestly I'd appreciate Mcdonalds at this point.

She also said: classes are going well though I feel like someone is taking a jackhammer with a bomb on the end and putting it against my brain. Yes that is exactly how I feel everyday it's pretty dang crazy. But kind of fun at the same time.

First Week At the MTC

This week has been so long. Everyday feels like a marathon, but then after a couple days it only feels like it's been a day. It's kind of trippy and makes keeping track of the days kind of difficult. So they've just thrown us into teaching and it's been challenging. My companion is a talker so she kind of gets going sometimes and since I don't interrupt other people I end up talking less than I'd like to. Things have been going surprisingly well. though I think our first lesson went better than our second and third ones. Just a personal thought but I really do think it's true. 
 
I'm getting a little overwhelmed but personal study time is really helping with that. It's definitely my favorite time of the day. It's the only time that I really feel like I have some alone time which I'm really missing at this point. 
 
The elders in our district are pretty cool. There are seven of them and they're lots of fun. Which can be a problem sometimes since we're supposed to stay in the classroom during personal study time and they and my companion and one of the other sisters can get kind of loud sometimes which is frustrating because I really need that study time to prepare and to destress. But It's been nice getting to know them all the same. 
 
I feel like I've learned so much, though I'm still struggling with saying my morning prayers. One of these days I'll get it down. 
 

There are only four of us in the room and six beds so I'm sleeping on the top bunk of one and using the bottom bunk as a reading area then I'm not reading in bed. That's just for day, by way. We go for so long everyday but it feels like we still need about 3 more hours to really get everything done. I'm hoping that as the days go on it will get a little better. It's crazy to think I've only been here for 6 days at this point. It feels like it's been forever.

 

Here's a funny story for you real quick to end the e-mail. There was another district in our hallway, all elders, who left yesterday. But before we left we had some zone teaching time with them and there were two of them. Elder Daniel and Elder Blackstein (pronounced like the Bernstein Bears) who Sister Neeley and Sister Heward really hit it off with. They were kind of like groupies. So after class last night, they had to get pictures with them.  While we were waiting for them to do that I was talking to Elder Whiting (no he doesn't know if he's related to the ones in Kuna) Elder Roueche and Elder Nielson who thought it was weird that the sisters were flirting with the missionaries. And after a while Sister Schofield and I decided that we needed to get back to our room so we went to gather up our companions (an almost hourly occurance) and while we were working on getting their attention Elder Whiting yelled over "Sister Coon lay down the law".  It kind of made my night. Yes, I've been frustrated with feeling like I'm herding a squirrel around trying to get Sister Heward from place to place sometimes. But it's all good and even though I'm somtimes frustrated with her I believe that as we learn to communicate better we'll be able to teach well together because we'll complement each other. But right now I'm really grateful for Sister Schofield. She's a little bit older and we're both punctual and down to earth and dealing with very chatty companions who aren't always aware of the time. So it's nice to just be able to have someone who understands me a little bit better.

A few more days have come and gone

10 days. Only 10 quickly passing days until I enter the MTC.
Am I nervous? Oh you better believe it. I don't think I've ever felt so much anxiety in my life. I wasn't this anxious when I got lost on my way to the Louvre in Paris with 3 people who didn't speak any French. Yea that, no big deal for me.
But this adventure is one much bigger adventure. For one thing I'm really not very sociable, I've had the same friends for 6 years, and while I've branched out and made some new ones here and there it was a struggle, and well it paid off well I kind of new the people a little before hand. But here I am going off to share the most important thing in the world to me with people I've never met.
These people may reject what I have to share, which will hurt me inside so much. Simply because I want everyone to be able to find the joy I've found through the understanding of the atonement that is taught at church.
Now I apologize for the ramblings of this short post. But anxiety typically makes my thoughts ramble so it is what it is. Thanks for listening, per say.

2 weeks or 16 days to go

Today in church while semi-listening to the speakers, I really should focus better on them, I looked at the little calendar I had made up in the back of my notebook. That's when I noticed my one month before I leave had divided in half.
So 2 weeks have passed, not so shocking you'd think. But when everyday is exactly the same two weeks disappeared before I even realized it.
So here I am only 16 days away from entering the MTC 14 days away from giving my farewell talk and I may be freaking out a little inside.
I know I'm essentially all ready to go. But even knowing that the fact that you're life is about to change drastically for 18 months in just a few days is rather traumatizing.
So now it's crunch time. I have 3 skirts and two vests to finish sewing and I had better get myself in gear or I'll be short some clothes in the field.
Now I just need to decide if I want the next couple weeks to drag out or speed by. Definite pros and cons to both.

The Adventures of the Day

Tonight I had planned on a wonderful blog. One reflecting on the wonderful messages of General Conference. And on my impending entry date at the MTC.
With that being only a month away I looked forward to an exciting blog. But that's going to have to wait. Because as I went to write that blog, quotes and everything prepped in my head. I stepped onto the carpet in the basement outside my room. Immediately my dry socks were soaked, clear through. So rather than writing an uplifting hopeful blog I spent the last hour and half using the carpet cleaner to try to clean up the flooded basement.
There is of course still water in the carpet now, but I'm exhausted and the machine was slowing down so it will wait till morning.

Of course that came on the Sunday when I realized I have 4 skirts and one vest to make. 2-3 shirts or 2 shirts and one dress to find and purchase as well as a blazer. I need to find somewhere that does MMR's as I need to get two and they need to be 30 days apart. So that has to be done tomorrow. I still have tons of preparation to do for my mission; such as going to the temple which will be a week long trip as I'm going to Utah the day before my Mom's 1st generation family reunion. And since they probably need me to drive them home I can't just leave early. And to top it all off, the smallest deal of all, but maybe the most painful I just found out the person I loved for 3 years just got a new girlfriend, who is of course the age of my younger sister.

So what was going to be a wonderful evening of reflecting on the joy and challenges of what's to come it turned into a night where stress conquered all.  In fact I now can't even remember my favorite quote from conference that I had planned to put in my previously planned entry.

Here's to tomorrow, it can't be worse than today.