Selfie Obsession

Loni likes the "selfie" mode on my camera phone. She get's a kick seeing herself make funny faces.

The Ultimate Harvest

A couple of years ago, David built me a beautiful garden enclosure to keep the squirrels and rats away. In the past, these rodents were stealing my vegetables before I had a chance to pick them. They took from us the reward of partaking of our harvest. Last year, the enclosed garden kept out the pesky rodents and we finally enjoyed a bountiful harvest. This year seemed to be heading in a similar fashion. However, the other day, I noticed tiny holes in many of my tomato plants and bell peppers. The infected plants were rotting! I "googled" the problem and learned that we needed to spray the plants with Sevin to get rid of a certain type of pickle worm that could potentially destroy our entire harvest. 

I thought long on this dilemma and became frustrated that no matter what we did, it was nearly impossible to keep our garden safe from outside critters and bugs that wanted to eat it. This is similar to our lives. There is evil all around us in the form of alcohol, drugs, pornography, and many other addictions and sin that can lead us away from our ultimate harvest; eternal life. It is almost impossible to avoid exposure to these evils. As a mother, it is almost impossible to keep it away from my children. However, we can be like David in the bible and victoriously slay our "Goliaths". 

Pres. Hinckley gave a talk on this. I love what he said about not fearing evil. He said:

"You need not fear if you have the slingshot of truth in your hands. You have been counseled and taught and advised. You have the stones of virtue and honor and integrity to use against these enemies who would like to conquer you. When they challenge you, you can hit them 'between the eyes,' to use a figurative expression. You can say to the whole lot of them as David said to Goliath, 'Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.'"

. I pray that my children will be like David, who with only a sling and five stones and without any armor other than the armor of faith, go out into the world and face their "Goliaths" in victory. 

Driving in Clouds

 One of the many hundreds of reasons why I love living in NorCal is watching my children enjoy visiting my stomping grounds. This morning we planned on going to Fort Funston. I checked the weather (a must when traveling to that area) and was happy to see that it would be sunny and a high of 69 degrees. Good enough for me. However, as we approached Pacifica, the fog loomed in the distance along with a falling temperature. By the time we got to Fort Funston, we were driving in the clouds, which thrilled Dave-o to pieces. The outside temp. was 55 degrees. Brr. Too cold to play at the beach. So, I quickly came up with a plan B. We drove to Koret's Children Playground in Golden Gate Park. The sun was shining here and the temperature was 60 degrees. As a bonus, the historic Golden Gate carousel was open. Loni chose a frog to ride on while Dave-o and Kirsten raced on horses. They loved it! Then the kids had fun playing at the playground. It wasn't such a bad Plan B. We come home to 93 degree heat. 

Becoming More Perfected Followers of Christ

This was posted on Facebook by Sister Jensen:

"Our wonderful missionaries serving in the Des Moines and Ames Stakes came to the Des Moines Stake Center for Zone Conference on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. These are the best missionaries serving in the best mission!!! We are so grateful to parents, families and friends for your love and support!!!"

In his letter home to his family, James wrote:

"In my new planner, I have an awesome quote from Richard G. Scott that says, 'Our Heavenly Father did not put us on the earth to fail but to succeed gloriously.' I love that because I always forget that God has a perfect plan for all of us. He knows who we are and what trials/experiences to give us that can shape us into who He wants us to be. We are here to succeed by becoming more perfected followers of Christ!"

Comic 13

Do Not Contact!

Hello Everyone!

This week was decent. The biggest event that occurred this week was Zone Conference. This Zone Conference was unique because it was the farewell for President and Sister Jensen. It was a sad but spiritual conference listening to the Jensen's bear their testimonies about the church and missionary work. We love them to pieces! Zone Conference was fun because I was able to reconnect with a few of Elders who were in the Davenport zone with me. I saw my trainer, Elder Leavy, which was awesome. President Badger starts on Friday. He and President Jensen have a two hours overlap to exchange notes.

As far as missionary work goes, we have a few investigators who we are hopeful for. One of them named Abraham wants to get baptized, but he is living with his girlfriend! It is very frustrating because he wants to marry her, but they insist on having a traditional African marriage which is a lengthy procedure! We would suggest on temporarily splitting up, but they have children together. Oh well, we will continue to stress the importance of baptism and hopefully the marriage will be a swift process.

The weather continues to be as hot and humid as ever. 

On Sunday I met Elder Fox, who served in San Jose. He never served in our stake, but it was fun to talk with someone about San Jose.

On Saturday, we accidentally knocked into someone on our DO NOT CONTACT list. It makes sense he is on there. This was off his rocker! He tried to bash with us, but we deemed it a waste of time and walked away. He did give us water which was nice. They always offer you water.

This past week, Elder Law has shown me how to cook stuff. I am kind of a master now. I will attach a picture of culinary masterpiece I created this week!

That is pretty much all for this week. Next week I will probably email on Tuesday because of 4th of July! Enjoy this week everyone! I love you all!

Elder Zinn

The JENSENS!

Cooked Food Master Piece that I made!

Leavy like Gravy!

Sunday Dinner

We had a great time hanging out with Mom and Dad Zinn. The food was great, as always, but the company was priceless. Their yard is alive with beautiful scents and colors. It was a hot day, but Lonetta and Dave-o quickly found relief when the sprinklers turned on.

Home and then Off Again

 Steven came home from a fun week at Zion's Camp at Pico Blanco. He unpacked and cleaned up while I did his laundry and got him packed for EFY. Tomorrow, early in the morning, he will fly to Utah where he and his cousin, Mark, will be roommates for a week on BYU Provo campus. He is so excited!

Another Belt Promotion

Kirsten scored an 8-10 in her belt promotion test. She even broke her board on the first try!

She is now the proud wearer of the Camo-recommended belt. (I don't understand the whole "recommended" part.)

Flips, Fly, and Flops

Dave-o loves performing flips on the trampoline. 

Loni loves being bounced high and doing somersaults.

For the most part, these two play well together. 

Wintertime Blues

Here is the finished artwork from the talented artists, David and Kirsten.

This was taken from Season 1 Episode 8

I Have a Secret

Lonetta's new favorite phrase (taken from the movie 'Tangled":

Me: I love you.
Lonetta: I love you more.
Me: I love you most.

or

Lonetta: I love you
Me: I love you more.
Lonetta: I love you most.

Be Still My Heart

I've been working on this afghan for Lonetta a while now. I actually finished it a few weeks ago. However, I didn't like the white edging because it showed all the loose yarn on the edges. So, I let the project sit, and sit, and sit, until I was ready to unravel all the edging and redo it in gray. Happily, Lonetta loves it. So do I.

(Pattern found on Char and Ami's blog.)

Bob Ross Paint Along

 When we were newlyweds and living in Provo, Utah, David loved painting with Bob Ross (via TV). I have a picture of this somewhere. Recently, Netflix added Bob Ross episodes. David and Kirsten have been watching them together and as a result have the itch to paint along. What a wonderful daddy-daughter activity.

Comic 12

Mini Mission

Hello All!

I hope all is well. I had a rather long week. 

In this new area I was hoping we wouldn't knock as much as I did in Moline/Rock Island. Well, we knock just as much if not more! We spent nearly this entire week knocking on doors! We were blessed with 2 new investigators who seem pretty solid, Abigail & Hilton! We were also given many opportunities to be patient as four of our investigators dropped us this week.

This week, the Des Moines Stake was promoting "mini missions" for the youth (ages 16-18). Elder Law and I were entrusted with two mini missionaries, Saren Pearce & Killian Cauterucci (ages16). They spent Friday-Sunday with us. Since there were four of us, we essentially had a three day exchange. It was an interesting experience showing them the ropes of missionary work. Luckily, they both had a really good attitude and didn't complain about knocking on doors for hours. I felt a bit bad for them, because we came across some especially unpleasant people during that three day period. They didn't get any pity points. On Sunday, there was a closing fire side that we were invited to. During it, the mini missionaries had an opportunity to bear their testimonies about their experiences. It was very surprising to hear 20+ youth testifying about how knocking on doors and getting yelled at all day made them want become missionaries. It made me humble myslef and realize what an amazing opportunity I have to be a missionary and to stand as a witness of Christ 24/7. It is nice to have reminders every once in a while to help you realize how blessed you really are!

The weather continues to be hot and humid! There is zero relief out here! I would still definitely take this heat over the snow though.

I caught a GIANT ant that was IN our apartment with my bug vacuum. The bug vacuum has been surprisingly handy with all of the bugs that constantly invade our apartment.

On Sunday I finally met the ward! Not surprisingly, it is another very friendly ward! Now that we don't have a river isolating us from all of the members, we get fed much more! There is an Elder Fox in this ward that is serving in San Jose! He supposedly gets home this week.

That is pretty much it for this week!  I Love you ALL!

Elder Zinn

Mini Missionaries

 A better pic of the Mississippi

 Corn!

 Look! More corn!

Amos the ant

The Role of "Father"

I have spent over 21 wonderful years watching David be a father. He takes on the role of "father" with great importance. He spends much of his valuable free time bonding with each of the children. They are lucky to have him as their role model.