Christmas in July

"Merry Christmas!"
"Uhh, I think you are confused, it is July not December."
"I know it is July."
"Ok well Christmas is in December not July."
"Haven't you heard of Christmas in July?"

One tradition that my family has that I love is celebrating Christmas in July. It all started with my Grandmother who saw a tree on the side of the road that looked like a Christmas tree and she wanted to decorate it even though it was July. I can imagine her thinking why limit yourself to celebrating Christ's birth only once a year. So started Christmas in July.

In the last Christmas Devotional President Dieter F Uchtdorf said, "Christmas is a time for remembering the Son of God and renewing our determination to take upon us His name. It is a time to reassess our lives and examine our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Let this be a time of remembrance, of gratitude, and a time of forgiveness. Let it be a time to ponder the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its meaning for each of us personally. Let it especially be a time of renewal and recommitment to live by the word of God and to obey His commandments. By doing this, we honor Him far more than we ever could with lights, gifts, or parties."

When we celebrate Christ, when we remember Him, when we take the time to try to give back to Him we are celebrating Christmas. So why not celebrate Christmas in July and take the time to celebrate that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. That He came down here to Earth for us and fulfilled the Atonement. Let us celebrate Him all year round, even in July.

Pathways

The other day I was listening to a song from the musical "My Turn on Earth". It was about looking for the future outcomes from the decisions that we make today. One line is, "If you choose the very first step on the road you also choose the last. So if you don't like the end of the road you better back up, you know you better back up fast." How very true and the blessing is that we can back up we can repent and start over fresh. We can have the joy and blessing to know that every single day we can make sure we are on the right path.
One thing we need to remember though is our steps not only affect us but also those that we love. I hope we will all have the courage to make the right decisions so that not only we can stay on the right path but those we love as well.

"I betcha..."

When I was still down in Billings I decided that one day I was going to eat a one pound hamburger. Why I decided this? Because people told me that I couldn't. Well finally I made a bet with another missionary that I would do it, I would eat this one pound hamburger. Naturally if you looked at me you would probably think that I couldn't do it either. I mean I am a small person so where would all this food go? Well we went to the resturant and I ordered my hamburger and fries and a drink. Really I was a little hesitant when I saw my food. That was a lot of food and I was starting to second think my decision. But I had to do it. I had ordered my food and everyone was expecting me to attempt this challenge. Strangly enough I did it. I, Sister Jensen, ate a one pound hamburger and fries and a drink. Those that were there were shocked that I could do it. Those that I tell this story to are shocked that I could do it. The more I think about it the more I am shocked that I could do it.

I have had a lot of experiences where people have doubted whether I could do something because of my size, or my age, or, sadly enough, because I am a woman. They like to make bets with me that they think I will lose. Often times I prove them wrong but sometimes I don't. Whether I do or I don't it is never a pleasant feeling when someone thinks you can't do something.

Really that is the way Satan wants you to think too, that you can't do something or anything. It is that negative thinking that starts to work at us and prevents us from really accomplishing any tasks. Luckily God is not this way. He is that person sitting next to you at that table when you have a couple more bites left saying, "Come on I know you can do it. Just a few more bites left." He is the one to tell you that He knows you can do it even before you pull up to the resturant. He is our number one supporter. Sometimes things may seem hard and we don't know if we can accomplish them but with God's help we can do anything.

Now I don't know if I can eat a one pound hamburger again but I do know that I can do hard things. I can do them because I have God on my side to help me and to support me.

Superba

Learned a new word this weekend from a very interesting man. The word; superba.

One Sunday afternoon we decided to go tract a town that we had never been to before. As we were out we ran into an elderly man that was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but because he lived about 30 miles away from the nearest church building and didn't have transportation he doesn't really attend.

As we knocked on his door and he opened it, he just looked so happy and grateful that we were there. At the time neither I nor my companion knew that he was a member. From that visit we learned a lot about him and his history. One thing stood out to me was that he kept asking us if we were from the ward and when we would say yes he would clap his hands and say, "Superba!" He was just so happy to have the Spirit in his home again.

I think that we all go through times in our lives when we have drawn away from God and Jesus Christ. That because of one reason or another our relationship with them weakens and it isn't as strong as it once was. The wonderful thing is that Jesus Christ is always on the other side of the door knocking waiting for us to answer and let him in. Just like this fella answering the door and exclaiming, "superba" because we were there we to should open the door to Jesus Christ and shout, "superba" because he is in our lives.

Lightening = wake up!

No surprise to anyone it has been raining a lot in Montana. Now I don't really have a problem with rain I love to watch storms move in. One thing I really love is thunderstorms. There is something behind watching the lightening and listening to the thunder. It just gives me a thrill of some sorts.

With all this rain I was expecting us to have a thunderstorm anytime soon. Days would go by but no storm. Rain would fall but no storm. I had almost lost hope that we would have a storm. Finally one came at 4:30 in the morning. Not at all when I had hoped for or even desired. Luckily for me the thunder woke me up and I was able to see a couple of lightening strikes before I fell back to sleep. The next morning I was talking to a lady we live with about the storm. My companion later on asks if there was a storm because she didn't wake up from anything and had only heard about it from me and our host member talking about it.

This reminds me of when Christ is going to come again. He says he will come as a thief in the night. We won't know when it will come and we each  pray that we will be able to recognize when he comes. Now I don't want to be a deep sleeper in spiritual things and miss over the signs in life that point me to God because I can't wake up. This can happen to any of us though. We can each be deep sleepers. Luckily though God loves us and He wants us to be awake for when Christ comes again. He gives us prophets and the scriptures to wake us up. By following the guidance of the Lord's words we can be awake and ready for the day when Christ will return.

Happy Memorial Day!

Thanks to those who have come before us and fought for the freedom that we hold so dear to our hearts now.

Glen Jensen





Jeramy Jensen





Lawrence Jensen



Perennial

per·en·ni·al

[puh-ren-ee-uhl]

–adjective

1.

lasting for an indefinitely long time; enduring:

2.

(of plants) having a life cycle lasting more than two years.

3.

lasting or continuing throughout the entire year, as a stream.

Now I have decided that if I am ever going to have a garden I will most likely have a ton of perennial flowers because they come back every year. I kind of like that because then you don't have to worry about replanting every year; you plant them and they grow and then come back each year. Also they are just pretty to look at. While they do come back each year you still have to water them and weed them and fertilize them.

Now gospel time. Our testimony should be perennial testimonies, lasting for an indefinitely long time; enduring; lasting and continuing throughout the entire year. How much easier would that be? We wouldn't have to redevelop our testimonies or re-find them each year. All we would have to do is tend them. Some might say that tending our testimonies takes to much time and effort. While yes you do have to continually be working at it, reading, praying, keeping the commandments, going to church it is so much easier to keep it alive and strong then having to redevelop or regrow it each year. Also another blessing about keeping our testimonies in the perennial section is that instead of having to start over fresh you can just keep building on it and making it stronger.

So keep taking care of your perennial bulbs so you don't have to replant them every year.