16 inches of fresh powder

Well, here it is! Proof of the blizzard we just had in Kansas! I went outside when I got up this morning after layering my clothing and made some videos and took some pictures! Enjoy!

Snow Day...

This sucks! Simply put is that my workplace shut down all the phones and most everyone went home, but since I was sick a day last week and one this week I used all my "earned" time...so what does that mean? That means I have to stay at the office till 7 P.M. tonight most likely all by myself after 4 due to everyone else leaving the office.

They close the office but in order for us to leave we have to use the time we have saved up..that is a rip off to the extreme. The good thing though is that I can catch up on work I got behind in since I can't get a phone call to interrupt me in the middle of something....

I will post pictures of the blizzard later when I get home and have my camera available....

Baptized!

So today is the most AMAZING day EVER..okay so not EVER but it runs a close tie to a few! This weekend I was able to attend the Oklahoma City Temple and then today was Ward Conference in Great Bend. So I had a lot of Spiritual highs this weekend, and what makes it so great is this. For one Sister Van Komen (Missouri Independence Mission President's wife) ordered me a missionary name tag like 2 months ago, today I picked up the missionaries for church and when we arrived Sister Gundersen was like like "Jessica, I ordered a new name tag but they spelled my name wrong" so I looked at the tag and it said "Sister Zink" I screamed and jumped up and down like a little girl. It was the greatest feeling. (I will post a picture later)

Fast forward to about 8 p.m. tonight and I checked my e-mail to see I have a message from my oldest brother Jason on Myspace. I go see what it says, and it reads like this "I just wanted to let you know I have decided to get baptized on April 4!" Oh my gosh! I wanted to scream and jump around like a little girl but my parental units were sitting in the same room, and he asked that I do not tell them yet due to him not wanting to lose their respect, but I assured them they are fine, they have dealt with me being a memeber going on 5 years now!

Along with my brother, 2 of his children have decided to enter the waters of baptism and join the wonderful church that I call home! I love this Gospel and I love now that I will have blood relation in the church! This was the greatest news, and it came at a time when I was doubting wanting to be a full time missionary, I have started my papers and nothing seems to be working, so I was thinking that I was going to tell my Bishop to cancel them out until I had the money and weight figured out, but I know this is Heavenly Fathers plan! I love this work and I know I am called to it!

Oh it looks as if I am hitting the road on April 3 to attend my brothers baptism in Lousiana! I am so excited to be there for his big day!

Zone Conference....

This happened like the first week of February. Whoops! I love going to Zone Conference as I have previously stated in other post. This one was awesome though, it happened to be my day off but the catch was there was a trio of Sisters in Hays and well 3+3=6 so obviously my car is a 5 passenger car. So are you wondering how we pulled this off? Well, it went like this: I happened to be teaching Relief Society on fast and testimony (it was my turn as part of the presidency) and this year we have decided to teach about the modern day prophets and something they really focused on, so I picked Spencer W. Kimball and he focused on missionary work. So I gave what I was told a powerhouse lesson and after the lesson was over Sister Gundersen went up to Sister Siefkes and asked if we could use her van! She of course felt it was okay so there we go, we had a van in hand to use! So fast forward! I picked up the van after I got off work a bit early so we could make it to Wichita (2 hour drive) at a descent hour and on the road we went! 5 missionaries plus me! It was awesome, a little side trip in Wichita due to me double guessing where the memeber we were staying with lived, but it was so much fun! We took some pictures that night as all of us sisters gathered there and we had a lot of laughs and some good talks!

So fast forward to the actual conference, I looked like a missionary and many thought I was an actual missionary and that I had just left my name tag at home! So I got to see some of my most favorite missionaries and also got to feel the Spirit so strong! I can't wait till I am the missionary at one of these on my own mission! But what I love the most is that at the end of the conference you greet the mission President and his wife and say your goodbyes. Well I go through the line and tell them Thanks for being awesome and Sister VanKomen hugged me and said how much she loved the work I do with the girls and what not and said man we need to get you an honorary name tag. Then this look came to her face, and she said I know exactly what we are going to do, we are going to order you one and I am going to pay for it! So they ordered me a name tag to wear when I go to District Meetings and Zone Conferences, and she also told me she better see me at EVERY Zone Confernece in the future!



This is Sister Rigby and Sister Lott. They currently serve in Hutchinson, well shoot Sister Lott is still there and Sister Rigby is now in Manhattan. None the less Sister Rigby was given these awesome footy pajamas by a member in Hutch and she wears them well!





This is Sister Martin, Sister Freitas, and Sister Miller they are the trio that was in Hays, KS for a little bit. Sister Freitas was actually supposed to go home, but she extended her mission by I think 3 weeks so she could go with one of her Recent Converts to the temple in Denver, Co!


The Great Bend "Trio". Sister Montano, Sister Gundersen and myself! Don't I look like a Sister Missionary already?








So this goes a little like this! Sister Lott and Sister Reynolds. Middle pictures is Myself, and Sister Reynolds and then Sister Lott squeezing in the middle of us! Then the last is myself with Sister Freitas, I knew her as a "greenie" and she is home now, makes me feel really really old to see another "greenie" I have sort of helped train go home...ugh...
Oh and we took a group shot, if you notice Sister Lott and Sister Rigby are making some sort of weird frame for their face, but the rest of us all look "normal" but that was every Sister that was at Zone Conference! I love them all, if you want to know who is who just ask!






So on the way home everyone but me and Sister Gundersen took a nap! Totally not fair for everyone else to sleep but so goes life!

Bierrocks....

Going going gone!

That is right, I became Sarah Lee or Betty Crocker or Rachel Ray recently, I have found joy in cooking as previously stated post. This time around I made homemade bierrocks, it was awesome and I had a blast. I took pictures of the whole process and if anyone wants the recipe or help making them from scratch just let me know! Oh and I did this for the Sister Missionaries as per normal, one had never had them before (her being from Mexico) so it was fun to see her try a new thing!

First you have to cut up your cabbage. I bought a large head and it produced way to much cabbage for the amount of bierrocks I was planning on producing!








I sat out the dinner rolls to rise so then I can flatten them (which I must say is good anger management if you need that sort of thing) I bought one large bag which had 72 rolls in it which you put together to make one bierrock so I made 36 total!




Ground the hamburger! I used 80/20 to make it easier when mixing the cabbage in to finish cooking. I also used 3 lbs. of ground chuck! My advice is to have a really really and may I say REALLY large skillet to do all of this in!



This is where I needed help, the skillet was to heavy for my weak wrist to lift and turn and sucessfuly dump the meat into the huge pan with the cabbage. Luckily my Dad LOVES to help in the kitchen, in fact I generally have to tie him down so I can cook in his kitchen, but this is the filling for the rolls!





I also enlisted the help of my mother, she was helping me flatten the rolls and then I filled them! It was a great bonding experience to be honest, I had a blast for once!

Here is the final product! I baked them for about 16 minutes upwards to 18-20 at max. They came out golden brown, this picture doesn't really do it justice, but they were AWESOME. I topped them off with a layer of butter to help soften them up!

Sister Montano enjoying her first ever bierrock! She was not quite sure what to think, but I think she enjoyed them in the long run!

Sister Gundersen on the other hand was looking forward to the bierrocks, I didn't tell them for sure I was doing it, I hinted. But alas, she said her whole mission people had promised to make homemade bierrocks and never did or did after she left, so she was very happy!

A night out

Again, this is belated. And again let me state that I know me going to a bar/lounge is not right with my current faith, but I had a blast and yes I might of had some guilt in going and regretted it just a bit but I stuck to my standards and have since sworn off going past this weekend. So no worries about me in that subject!

Anyways this lovely group of people I went out with are my amazing co-workers. I have been blessed to have fantastic people at work that I love to call my friends outside of work too. They had a few drinks and were feeling good and I didn't drink but yet felt good too! We had an overall good time!

When your companion is sick....

What do you do to entertain yourself? I am speaking of missionary companions of course, and well Sister Wells was out sick (yes I know she has been gone 6 weeks already, and we have already established I suck at updating this on time) so Sister LaBass found random ways to entertain herself throughout the day. This was part of it! Random bookmarks made of really old photos....good times for sure! Oh yeah and you make random music videos singing hymns!