Tacloban Missionaries

Dear Family and friends,

Well, this week has been Cray cray. We had a lot to do and not a whole lot of time to do it. We had Zone conference with President Q. It was on obedience. It is usually the topic, so it must be something we all need to work on. There are even little things we can to better each day to be more obedient. Then we had interviews with President and apartment checks. Thank goodness we passed, but of course we take care of our palace of an apartment because we want to keep it! Who wouldn't want to live in the the Belair of apartments here in the mission?President told me my companion spoke well of me... I would hope so hahaha.

 I also learned we are receiving fifteen of the Tacloban missionaries in our mission. I saw their picture today and as far as I can tell and there are only two sisters. At our zone conference President Q. had one elder that's parents live in Tacloban stand up. They don't know about his parents. There is no electricity in Tacloban and many people died. President talked about his courage to continue serving his mission  even though he doesn't know where his family is and if their okay. He stood there and wiped tears away with his black hanky as President spoke. The Filipino people are dedicated to this work. We are getting two of the Tacloban Elders in our area, well, we think. We aren't sure exactly yet, but they put in bunks in the Elders apartment. We hope they will feel at home and be able to overcome their traumatic experience. Two of the Tacloban sisters had to force a hole in the ceiling of their apartment and climb into it to escape the water. They all survived. All of the missionaries because they are blessed of the Lord.

We also had district conference. All their meetings here they try to speak in English. The second councilor to President Q. spoke. The Church here is still baby like so there are branches and districts and President Q. is over it all. The second councilor was HILARIOUS! I loved his talks. He made me laugh. He talked about Abraham and Isaac. He said that we know that the angel that appeared to Abraham wasn't Filipino because he would have been late. Patay! Isaac would have been dead. That made me laugh because I think all the latter day saints have that problem of being on time. And it is true for all of us. It is particularly hard to be on time here though because you rely on others for transportation and you never know if there is going to be a bus or not when you need it. They aren't really scheduled. It can be very hard. We have waited hours for buses before. 

President E., the district President that lives here in Masinloc, also talked about the importance of not working on Sunday. He owns a school supply store here in Masinloc and the day that they have the most kita or profit is on a Sunday. Because of his wife they are not open on Sunday now. All the other people in town think he is crazy for it, but they aren't open on Sunday. His example caused one of our investigators, Sister G.N., to talk to her husband about devoting Sunday to the Lord instead of working. It was great! Sister N. is Scheduled to be baptized this coming Saturday. Her husband has started to read the Book of Mormon and is slowly but surely coming closer to Christ. We have lots of people that are preparing themselves for baptism in December and we are so excited for them! I know that atonement of Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing and it is beautiful when we let it work in our lives.

Love you all! Stay Strong and follow God!

Sister Jensen

Zone Conference