Jenna in West Virginia: Happy Monday! (Week 40)

(Once again - I am late posting this email due to a vacation without good internet access. This was Jenna's email sent on 6/17/13.)

Hello again family!

First off, Happy Birthday Lindsey!!! Second, Congratulations Isaac!!! Wohoo!! You survived! And thirdly, Happy Anniversary tomorrow mom and dad!!!

Ok, did this past week go by quickly to anyone else or was it just me? That week just flew by so fast! Also, I hit my 9 month mark on Wednesday! That's a scary and crazy thing! I'm more than half way done with my mission! Ah! Anyways, thanks for writing to me even though you guys were tired! It's always nice to see emails in the inbox from the family...especially since I've been going through a drought of no snail mail for over a week. It sucks! Oh well... at least every day when I open it I see that our pincher bugs are still there to tell me hello :D Glad to hear that all went well with the cruise and that you had a wonderful time! I'm jealous, especially about the zipline! The verandah sounds awesome! Thanks for the pictures too! Sounds like it was a good success then and that you had/are having a nice break...me too for six more hours! :P

Let's see, this week was good, but it went by so quickly that I am trying to remember what even happened! Sister Patchett hit her 2 month mark on monday and I hit my 9 month mark on wednesday, so to celebrate we got ice cream on tuesday! We had to teach young women's yesterday so we planned our lesson and I learned a lot more about how young women can honor and uphold the priesthood in their lives. I learned a lot and found some wonderful talks on it. We had an awesome lesson that we had prepared, and then when we went to church yesterday not one girl showed up to church. So, we didn't get to teach our lesson. How rude! We still think that we are pretty cool though ;)

We had specialized training (similar to zone conference) for our zone on thursday and that was really good and taught me a lot about how I can be a better missionary and trainer. It's always so wonderful to be together with other missionaries and President and Sister Pitt. I learned a lot and hopefully can apply it into my mission even more. Our role plays weren't the best because Sister Patchett had some breakdowns, but it's ok. She's getting better and stronger and everything will come together for her and she keeps enduring. She just needs a greater desire to actually teach people. We were supposed to have a crazy storm that same day like the storm that happened last year that knocked out power for a few weeks and destroyed a lot. We really only got a lot of wind and thundering, lightening, and rain. Maybe more will come though?

We had the sisters from SVU come blitz our area thursday, friday, and saturday and that was fun. They taught me a lot and strengthened my resolve to work even harder. I learned how to tract better, talk to people better, and just figure out what more I can do in a day. It was a good learning experience and a humbling experience. The Lord has just loved doing that to me this entire time that I have been in White Sulphur, but it's good because I am learning so much. One of the sisters said that I have changed so much since when I came out and that I am just a fabulous trainer, am doing so amazing, and am so beautiful inside and out! She also said that i am just full of humility and always want to learn and help! That was super nice of her, although I am not what she says. I don't feel like a good trainer at all, but that's ok because I can always learn and improve and that's where the atonement comes in :) We had an awesome day on saturday because we went further out into our area that I haven't been to before. I had been having a feeling that we needed to go tracting out there for the past week or so, but haven't followed it. Saturday we did and we found so much success there!!! We have two potential families that are great, and we picked up another family as investigators and they are just amazing!!! AHHHH! We were all so, so excited! They are solid and are open to learning more and really want to know more. They want us to come for dinner and a lesson and they are just solid. I love it! The Lord is blessing us slowly but surely! I also, got a nice tan on my feet that day from my shoes, and I got a wonderful farmers burn/tan yesterday! We also got rained on while tracting so we are having some great times! ha That blitz though was a success and I loved it! I am so excited for this family, and hope that everything goes well!

Lastly, on wednesday we finally met a less active who I have been trying to get a hold of since march. We had been going for about an hour to less actives, formers, and potentials and no one was home. We were getting discouraged and it was towards the end of the day and we were tired. As we walked back to the car from one more unanswered door I just had this thought pop into my head that we needed to go see this woman. I kind of laughed because we have never caught her, but I went with it because we weren't seeing anyone else, and I just felt like we should. We went, pulled up to her house, and she was outside on her porch!! We ended up talking for like an hour and then she gave us fruit and it was wonderful! She said that she likes us a lot because we are so cute, and more laid back than other missionaries, and then she just said that she wanted to go to church! It was awesome! She didn't come on sunday but that's ok cause we are now working with her! It was such a miracle though and a testament that the Lord knew where we were and that we needed to go see this woman because she needed us at that moment!

Oh, last thing. The zone leaders had Sister Patchett and me sing a song at specialized training and that was terrifying! Everyone said that it was wonderful and that we did so well, but I think they are lying! One of the verses we messed up and kind of started laughing, and on my solo verse I was off key for a bit of it. But oh well! The spirit was there and that's all that mattered! At least we tried! It was good though!

Sorry, this email kind of just dragged on. I hope that you are all doing well though and that you have a wonderful day at graduation! Congrats Isaac! I'm proud of you! :) Wish I could be there for all of these events, but I will be there in spirit and will see you in 8 months! Love to each of you!

Love, Sister Higgins