On a Mission

It’s been a long time coming—like Dorothy’s journey to Oz! But Sister Mortensen’s blog is finally here. I hope family and friends will enjoy catching up with Sister Mortensen’s missionary journey as it unfolds week by week.

When Jaimie told me she was going to go on a mission, I had a wait-and-see attitude. People change their minds all the time, so I wasn’t sure if this was a fleeting idea, or something much deeper. I was impressed and pleased when Jaimie followed through with her plans to serve the Lord by sharing his gospel with others in the mission field.

Sister Mortensen became an official missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on June 25, 2013 when she was given a special blessing by the Stake President and has been serving for about two months now. It was great to share this exciting moment with so many friends and family. 

Sister Mortensen stayed at the Mission Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah for ten days, then flew off to Kansas where she was called to serve her mission. Although Sister Mortensen wasn’t the biggest Wizard of Oz fan before her mission, I think being in the Land of Oz  must have softened her up. At least she seems to be embracing her inner Dorothy now--lol!

Jaimie and her companion on the yellow brick road

So what's Sister Mortensen been up to besides skipping down the yellow brick road? I'll share some of the things she's shared with me:

Sometimes she's teaching investigators:

Saturday was full of a wonderful wedding and baptism and then we moved into our new apartment so we didn’t have time to invite people to church. So we weren't expecting anyone at church on Sunday. But low and behold,  the granddaughter of one of our investigators, her son, and baby daddy showed up! The baby’s father is a returning member and she is interested in learning! So we went over that day and we were able to answer her many questions and she invited us back and wants to come to church again. It was such a blessing! We were excited for them.

Sometimes she learning something new herself . . .

That night we went to a little girls house for dinner. We had dinner and it was wonderful. An elder used to work at his dad's pizza restaurant so he did a little show of pizza tossing and that was cool. He let me borrow the rubber pizza dough he uses to practice. I'm getting better at it. Abby is in love with this elder and would follow him around the house and was constantly talking to him. It was really funny and cute. She reminded me of when I was little and I kissed one of the missionaries that came over for dinner on the cheek. Do you remember that? Somewhere out there some guy wrote home about the experience--lol!

Sometimes, she just embarrasses herself . . . 

After dinner there was a spiritual thought and then I was asked to say the closing prayer (I usually am because I'm pretty quiet.) Anyway I start to say the prayer and I try to say "Thank you for the wonderful food that was prepared"  and what I actually said was "Thank you for the wonderful poo-food that was prepared" We held it together for a couple seconds and an elder started laughing and we all lost it. Along with losing the spirit I lost any kind of respectability among the missionaries here. The poo prayer is how I will be remembered. and that's all that will be thought of each time i'm asked to say the prayer amongst the missionaries in the area. So that's fun. 

Sometimes she's grossed out with spiders in her bed!

We did our laundry on Monday and I washed my sheets. Then the sister we're staying with took the sheets out of the dryer and spread them on a deck for a nice airing. The next morning. however. I felt something moving on my face. I quickly smeared it away and in my sleepy state decided that it was only my hair. I then fell back asleep and tossed and turned for a couple hours. After getting up in the morning I remembered that their may have been something on my face. So I went and looked at my bed and there was a spider here and there and over there. Legs were on my sheets and pillow case. It was really pretty gross. I washed my sheets again and made sure they stayed in the dryer--no more air drying! 

And sometimes she's out and about teaching people and visiting members:

We've been without a car since Wednesday. We walked Thursday about 3 miles. My companion had an allergic reaction to the sunscreen she was using and her face turned bright bright red and was hurting really badly. We had to stop at a members house for some relief and water. I got some blisters on my feet but other than that I was pretty okay.Also wind and skirts don't mix easily, so it frustrating to be walking and having to fight to keep your skirt down in the wind. 

So that's the latest from Sister Mortensen and the Land of Oz--I mean, Kansas! A senior couple in her mission district also has a terrific blog. I'm always thrilled when I can catch more news and pictures about Sister Mortensen and what the mission is doing. For more information and pictures visit their blog at http://ourmissionispossible.blogspot.com/