Christmas week!

Decorating our little Christmas Tree

So this was one heck of a week. We had 2 exchanges this week. One on Wednesday. I got to go to a place called Lucerne Valley. Its comparable to Glenwood and Hill Spring .... or Vauxhall. hahahah. In all sorts of ways: people, location, population, smell, geography hahah it was super cool. We had some awesome lessons with investigators.

At our Mission Christmas devotional

Then on Christmas Eve we had a bunch of shenanigans delivering packages (christmas gifts) to everybody in the zone. We completely filled our poor corolla... Like the whole trunk we packed tetris style and the whole back seat to the roof and I had a box of letters to be sorted and delivered on my lap and we still didn't have enough room. So we had the office elders deliver the two closest companionship's their packages. Then in the evening we saw an amazing miracle with our investigator, Taylor, in the YSA ward. We hadn't been able to get a hold of him and he wouldn't text us back. But at 8 in the evening he texted us and asked if we could meet that night, with a specific member. He lives in Victorville and we were in Apple Valley, so we weren't going to go because we realized would wouldn't have a lot of time and would probably would be late getting home and we didn't want to bug anybody on Christmas eve night. But we prayed about it and decided we needed to go, but we didn't take a member. We drove from the far end of AppleValley down a road we will call Bear Valley road( because that is what it is called) to somewhere in the middle of Victorville in 15 minutes( normally that would take somewhere along the lines of an hour.) We managed to only hit 2 red lights (there like 20-25 not even joking... its worse than Mayor Magrath in Lethbridge) on the way to his house without getting tiwi (our little car monitor that doesn't let us speed) mad at us! We had an amazing lesson with him. We then traveled home and were in before curfew. It was truly a Christmas miracle.

Christmas was awesome... we brought a companionship to our house and us and our roommates and them opened Christmas gifts and had Christmas breakfast. then we went for second breakfast with the members. then we delivered thank you's to people and skyped... then we had christmas dinner ... it was ham and potatoes and candied yams (so good) and pecan pie... so good! then we went for second dinner.. this time prime rib! so good!!

At the devotional with Elder Gunnerson

Then on Boxing day I was on exchanges with Elder Neilsen in my area. We were supposed to have a bunch of lessons... but they all fell through. So we used up a lot of backups and alot of time was spent trying to find people... and at last at 7:30 at night on the last planned backup we got in with a guy we had talked with over a month ago. We managed to teach him the restoration, even with his bird flying around the house. hahah it was great.

Elder Markham and our tree

Love

Elder Jensen

The tie I skinnied

Pretty nice now eh?

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

WELL it was an interesting week... while everyone else goes on Christmas break... we as missionaries keep working...

But we still managed to have a good week. We found a new investigator. Her name is Tracy and  she has already been to church in a different town!... she has some really interesting views of Mormons... but she has it in her mind that she wants to be a Mormon already... so it should be a pretty easy win!!! We also taught Mario and Liz again... We were actually on exchanges with the AP's when we did. So a year ago Elder Findlay was my zone leader in Hesperia... and a year Dec 19 ago I was on exchanges with him...well exactly a year later we are on exchanges again with each other! so that was cool. Anyway... we were on exchanges and we got to teach Mario and Liz...they were out in their garage while their neighbors were having a birthday party so it was really noisy, but we did manage to teach them. They hadn't read from the book of mormon because their life is hectic. But we read with them and testified of how it would bless their lives. They commited to read and they promised to be at church on the 3rd of january. So we are hoping... 

sorry kinda rushed!

Excited for Christmas!

Love

Elder Jensen

A crazy Week

SO this week was nuts busy... we hardly were able to keep up with everything we had to do.

Monday was super cool. So after all of our p-day stuff. We went to dinner and then to FHE in the YSA ward. Elder Markham was kinda dragging his feet about it...didn't really want to go and all I really cared about was having something to do in the evening. We get there and the lesson is average and the treats are average and I am still thinking to myself "well at least we weren't wandering around outside in the cold. that would suck." when a member says to us "hey Elders come talk to this guy he isn't a member!" So we talk to the guy(his name is Taylor) and ask him when we could meet with him. He says "would now work?" OF COURSE!!! so we had a quick 20 minute lesson with him and committed him to baptism on the @ of January! We had two more lessons with him this week, both of which we were able to take members to. He is super willing to learn and to change! Turns out he has already been taught so we just have to review some things with him and help him live the commandments! He committed to be at church and came! He was super fellowshipped at church. It was awesome! He was a minute or two late and we were waiting for him in the hall. Right when he was showing up one of the members (Dallon) we took to see him walked out and started talking to him. We walked in and sat down and Taylor tried to sit down with us, but Dallon wasn't having any of that. He pushed his row of 6 friends and his older brother over to make room for Taylor !!! It was super awesome! Needless to say we both have better attitude toward FHE now.

On Tuesday we had our Zone Meeting! It went Super awesome! especially considering this months chapter out of preach my gospel is super dry.

We met with Douglas and took Br. Hume again. They get along really well and we are hoping to get him to church next Sunday. If he doesn't come we will probably drop him.

We also met with Tim again. We read the introduction to the book of Mormon with him and committed him to church.. but he didn't come so we have to figure out where he was...

Nothing else miracle wise. Just a lot of running around trying to meet everyone. 

Love

Elder Jensen

PS. So you guys may or may not remember an Andrew  that I was teaching in my last area. He got BAPTIZED!! I was able to make it to the first half of the baptismal service, but had to leave after the ordinance. I have pictures... but not my sd card reader... so I will get them to you next week!

The beginning of Missionary work in a YSA ward

So this week was nuts... we had a lot of meetings and planning to do for our zone. We had a training meeting with the AP's and President and then we led a training meeting with our district leaders. We also planned for our zone training meeting that is coming up. We did, amidst all of the meetings, manage to make it to the YSA FHE and to Institute Thursday evening. We also managed to find a new family in our family ward. The mom was a self referral and we managed to teach her and her daughter! It was an awesome lesson! We took a priest from our ward and he bore an awesome testimony of the Book of Mormon... otherwise he was pretty quiet hahah Poor guy. it was only his second time out with missionaries and the lady had some questions... (normal to us, crazy to the young man) like do we have crosses in our church? and how we pray? how she should pray? the identity and existence of our mother in heaven. Hahahah it was a great lesson though!

I love this season and the spirit it brings! If you want that spirit check out this awesome video at 

christmas.mormon.org !! you will love it!

Love

Elder Jensen

Wow.....

So this week was nuts..... today is transfer day... so we are super busy. this will be a short one.

Me and Elder Markham are the same... but we are taking over a YSA ward and another zone... so we are busy and more busy.

We had to drop Joe and Alicia... they don't want to get married and Joe pretty much told us that if he could drive he wouldn't go to our church anyway... so that was sad :(

We found a new investigator his name is Tim. He is cool. He wants to get baptized and come to church!

On thanksgiving one of our investigators had us over to his family dinner. We met his wife officially for the first time and she was really interested in what we do as missionaries! The turkey was the best turkey ever so juice and tasty!! And then at the dinner a guy for my first ward walks in! It was super cool!! hadn't seen him in like a year! Also had another dinner with a ward member that day... and pie at another member's house who had us over... so much food.. so good...

Sadly my second companion is going home to day... so that is me and him! 

and this is most of my MTC group... first time lots of us had seen each other in awhile!

Love

Elder Jensen

Bread from the Kearns 34th Ward

 hahahah so I will explain the heading in a second.

Life is good and I am well. It is cold here in California.... like all the way down to 32...it is awful. Not sure how I will survive in Canada.

Brad: Had ( probably) our last lesson with him. If all goes well he should be back with his family next week! Sad for us but good for him.

Douglas; had a good lesson on following the prophet. We talked a lot about commandments and why we have them and the blessings of keeping them. We also watched Pres. Monson's conference address from preisthood session.

Joe and Alicia-  We taught the word of wisdom which from what they said they were already living and revisited the law of chastity. They need to get married, but both are unsure if they want to. Joe is more of the hang up which is really sad, if it was just Alicia she would probably be being baptized next week. This week we are going to give them a bit of an ultimatum and move no from there. We might have to drop them :(

Debra- Debra is new investigator! She actually found us! We were walking with a guy and she walked up to us and started talking with us as well. She has just recently moved in to Apple Valley and is looking for a church. we  got her number and set up a return appointment. It was and interesting lesson (as always in the desert). But she really focused for the first vision and the book of Mormon part. She has already started cleaning up her life... so most of the commandments will be easy for her to live. She has a baptismal date for December 26... weird day I know... but we felt it was right.

So about the bread.

Last week our district (not the whole zone) decided to have a special fast on Sunday to find new investigators. We started Saturday night after dinner and went until Sundays dinner. So Saturday after church and studies we are out trying to proselyte on empty stomachs... which is not that bad really but it seems bad when you are doing it. All of our plans fall through and we still have like and hour before dinner. So we pray and to know what to do and to have strength to continue. we decide to go try a couple of less active people that all live in one house. No one answers (bet you coulda guessed that). We feel prompted to try a house across the street. A lady answers the door and says

" Oh Brothers . Its so good to see you! Come in. Do you want some warm peach cobbler?"

OF COURSE WE DO!!!!

We go in and she gives us some cobbler and we start talking. she tells us how she likes to bake and how her son has  Syliacs and can't have gluten. Then how her most favorite recipe is for cinnamon bread... like a loaf of cinnamon rolls... but all bread. Then she tell us how she made Funeral potatoes. at this point we are wondering who the heck she is. 

*She knows about funeral potatoes?! Who is this lady?*

So we say "oh yeah MORMONS love funeral potatoes"... and then she pulled out her favorite cook book( where she got the recipe for the brad and funeral potatoes and cobbler)... and it is a ward cook book from the Kearns 34th ward of Utah... yup. Turns out she loves Mormons but doesn't think that any one religion can have all the answers...but she was really nice to us. Then she showed us her farm( backyard farm). and on the way out the door she gave us a huge loaf of  warm cinnamon bread.

#BLESSINGS!

Love

Elder Jensen

Over a year!

Well I have been out over a year... and on my year mark day guess what I did????? nope didn't party or burn anything or go for food a fancy place.... I sat in a leadership meeting for like 8 hours. I am not bitter or upset or anything... its just not how most missionaries spend their year mark day hahah. 

So lets see...saturday we went on unexpected exchanges with the AP's... some other missionaries had to switch their exchanges so we got to go instead. I was in Rancho again but this time with with Elder Hancock. There was a missionary that had just come in from Chile with us as well because it is the middle of transfer. We had a great day it was cool to be back with Elder Hancock again.

Douglas- he is well he has decided to hold off on baptism for a while... but we are still going to try and teach him and get him there.

Brad- didn't get to see him a gain

Joe and Alicia - they came to church again!!! They will need to get married... but they should be baptized on the 5 of December.

Kelly- Elder Markham and Elder Findlay saw them on exchanges. 

Jeff- he is doing good we just read with him... he won't be able to be baptized on the date we set... but he is still super awesome and solid. we are hoping to start teaching his three kids.

I think that is it... this week we made a casserole that Presidents wife gave us a recipe for... it was awesome!! I don't have a picture sorry... but I do have one of exchanges!

love

Elder Jensen

Less than a year left.....

well this week was really weird... like really

So we taught a lot but it seemed like we didn't teach at all. 

Douglas- We taught him the baptism standards and he committed to baptism... but then he didn't come to church... so we are going to have to figure out what is going on. 

Brad- didn't get to see him this week

Jeff- He is a guy from like a while ago... he committed to baptism... but then he talked to friends and decided he had concerns... so we went back and  resolved said concerns and now he is back on date... unfortunately he couldn't come to church but he should be there next week!

Joe and Alicia- they are the referral from the sisters. We were able to teach them the restoration and committed them to baptism! They came to church and we are seeing them tomorrow!

Kelly- hahahah what a guy haha we helped him understand the Resurrection and the need for faith.

Geovani- cool part member guy. Hi wife is less-active. We taught him the plan of salvation... it went ok he just needs to actually commit.

On Thursday I had the glorious opportunity to be back on exchanges with Elder Depew. He was my second comp and he is now one of my district leaders. It was a great day... but we didn't teach any one.

On Wednesday we had our ward Halloween party... Me and Elder Markham went as each other. hahah no one really noticed.

Also as of Oct 31 I have less than a year left.... weird... really weird

Love

Elder Jensen

here is some of the chicken we made hahah

Sick week

So this week was hard.... me and Elder Markham were both sick which meant we didn't get to proselytize much. I got an ear infection, but thanks to ear drops and a priesthood blessing I am feeling much better!

So investigators

Douglas: He is well. He dumped his female friend after we taught the law of chastity. Quote "She wasn't that nice to me anyway" hahaha so that was good. He has only come to church once, so we taught keep the Sabbath day holy and at the end committed him to come to church and he was like "no its cool i'll just come after my baptism"... so that was sad... have to figure that one out. 

Brad: had a lesson with him as well. He is doing well, but he is spending more time with his parents ( which is a really good thing) on weekends which means he can't come to church. Also he thinks that the law of chastity is unlivable in the day and age.

Martin: didn't get to see him this week. He called us 10 minutes before the our appointment with him and said he had been called in early to work :(

Sam and Charlene: our appointment is next week.

Johnny and Kelly: Our lesson with them went pretty good. We show up to teach and kelly is like "Wait! can my friend join us?" of course. so he goes and gets his friend from the backroom and it is a less active guy (Trent) hahah. It was really great because Trent was able to help johnny and Kelly understand the plan of salvation better. Kelly is still afraid to die though. We committed them to church.... but when we showed up to get them ready they were like "nah not this week guys" so that was also sad.

The sisters did give a referral for a couple named Joe and Alicia. they live just around the corner from us. the sisters got them to church on their first try... so they must be doing something better than us. Sadly they had to leave early because Joe had to go to the hospital with high blood pressure.

But he is still alive!

the picture is of the moon and a cool ring around it... kinda hard to see #NotTheBestPicture

Love 

Elder Jensen

Ponderize verse Helaman 14:13

The longest week ever.....

So this week was, as stated above, the longest week of my mission. we didn't have p-day last Monday.... so the week was actually like 11 days long. and this weekend was the weekend we get transfer calls so that made it even worse. to end all suspense... i am staying here in Apple Valley and so is Elder Markham. 

Life is good.  We did some service at a squash farm... basically we just pulled out all the dead squash plants and through them in a composter.  

We also found 4 new investigators this week.

Johnny and Kelly were the first two. They are two guys that are best friends and were a referral from the sister in our ward hahah. they live in the sisters area, but it is better if we teach them. They are a little off hahah and they were drunk when we taught them so that wasn't helping. After receiving a tour of their house, we finally taught them the message of the restoration, Johnny was trying to counter everything we said with random bible facts, but we out did him and his "Amazing bible knowledge" and he accepted that Jesus did visit the america's and Joseph Smith could be a prophet. Kelly is a little more skeptical about the whole God thing... but his was already reading from the book of Mormon when we found him and he said he like it so that is good.

The other two I don't know much about. Elder Markham found them on exchanges and I have only taught them once. They are Sam and Charlene an the definitely need the gospel. When we taught them they accepted everything we taught... but it was hard to see if they really believed it or if they were just agreeing to us to get us to shut up and leave.

Other wise nothing much has happened.... Brad and Douglas are doing well... Douglas should be baptized on the seventh of November.

Love

Elder Jensen

this is my district ( sans Elder Markham)  and half of my zone

Surprise Thursday email!

So not much has changed since I emailed you last. But we were able to go on exchanges with one of the tri-panionships in our zone. I had a really good day in their area... It was nice to be back on bike for a day. We were able to watch a session of conference with brad. he really like it actually. His own words on it So not much has changed since I emailed you last. But we were able to go on exchanges with one of the tri-panionships in our zone. I had a really good day in their area... It was nice to be back on bike for a day. We were able to watch a session of conference with brad. he really like it actually. His own words on it are : "Wow! that was a lot less boring than I expected"

Today we went to the temple it was awesome!... the picture is of me and Elder Markham at the temple.

Love

Elder Jensen

Conference!!!!!!!!!

So this week was awesome... mostly because of General Conference. To the few people who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Conference is where we get to hear from the leaders of our church, Modern Abraham's and Moses's and Peter, James and John's! Literally learning what God has to say about the world at this time! Advice and commandments for now and not 2 or more thousand years ago. Not that scripture isn't important, but the world is always changing, so we need always need God's help.

Anyway. conference was amazing if you didn't get chance to watch it I would extremely encourage it. This week was good.

Tuesday we were able to teach alot of people. We taught Douglas ( I think I have mentioned him before) he is a super cool old southern guy... ok he is not that old ... but he is old. Anway... we asked him if he had read any of the book of mormon... and he was like "sorry guys I was only able to read up to chapter 10."  And we were just sitting there like... "its ok... most people don't read the first ten words." hahah so that was awesome! We also taught Brad... he is doing well not much new there.

Wednesday was our only full day to proselytize.... and we were only able to teach one lesson :(

Thursday- we had missionary leadership council... basically like 6 hours of figuring out what the mission needs to do better... kinda long and dry and taking up a whole day because we have to go to the mission office for it.

Friday- planning the Zone meeting we have to give tomorrow.

 We did teach a few recent converts so that was good.

Saturday- Conference!!!!!! and more Conference!!

Sunday- More conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty much awesome

today we hiked a mountain and that is what the pictures are of!

Love

Elder Jensen

PS. 

my verse is Mosiah 27:36. seemed appropriate for my current vocation.

I don't know what to tell you/ grandpa... where I am very few of my investigators actually work... so we can visit them whenever... and coincidentally not very many people work so we can just try people. However with a huge emphasis on families...I guess I would say that contacting at a park would be the best option. Typically it is a lot of moms which is perfect! You can find families... and then set up return appt for the evening when everyone is home.

Elder Jensen redeems himself with SNAIL MAIL

After today's email was a bit bland, save a brief faith-promoting story about prayer......we were blessed to receive the following snail mail letter from Elder Jensen today. And the letter arrived just in time for Family Home Evening!! Lucky boy! He is back in his mom's good books tonight.   Here's the letter!

Hey Guys!
So I guess Mom and Dad still wanted me to be able to participate in FHE even though I am like 2000 miles away....Hahah
Anyway a little birdy told me that this week's topic is on proper and safe internet use.  All I can really say on that is this: It has been designed for us to do good with it.  God wouldn't have allowed it's creation if it couldn't be used for good.  For us to use it safely we have to want to do good with it. If all we want is to not do bad, Satan will eventually tempt us into doing something wrong, but if we want to do what is right he cannot have any power over us.  As a missionary I see that a lot of people want to stop being bad, but aren't willing to start doing good!   In our last zone meeting, we talked about this.  So this is my commitment to you:

STOP doing something bad/not as good/could-do-something-better 

AND 

START doing something good/better/ or BEST!

Otherwise I am kinda outta touch with the technological world and don't really know what's going on

Love your big brother
Elder Jensen

Quick Week

Well we had a very fast week with two exchanges.

First exchange was in Rancho with the APs. I had a great day... but I want to stay in the desert.

I had a really cool miracle though. I lost my bike key after I had unlocked my bike ( yeah the AP's bike for some reason). Anyway the keys fel out of my pocket and we biked like a mile farther...  we started looking for them and couldn't find them... then Elder Bennion was like "what are we doing we haven't even prayed"... so we prayed and found them like a minute later... Power of prayer for you!

We had a pretty standard week... aside from two exchanges hahah.

Life is good... here is a picture from exchanges... And a food creation we made.

Love

Elder Jensen

Well it was a good week

Well it was a good week. Friday and Saturday were our most successful days but they, combined with Sunday, were also the most physically draining. Me and Elder Markham seem to have together contracted a terrible head cold... but I think we are getting over it finally.

 Friday we were able to teach an investigator that we haven't been able to see in a while. We set some expectations with her and asked if we could teach her whole family. She agreed but was very hesitant. We were also blessed with a new investigator on Friday. He lives with a semi-active family and previously has been set in his catholic background. However recently he has had his heart softened by some experiences with his kids. With a lot of faith and a little luck we should be able to help him come unto Christ.

On Saturday we were able to teach Brad again. It was an alright lesson. We just went over the first three lessons with him checking for understanding. He is retaining well, but he needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We also were able to teach a man named Geonvanni. ( yeah I know that isn't how most people spell Giovanni) He is the husband of a member and a teacher at a local high school. We taught with two of his former students there and he was very receptive. He said the reason the church became appealing to him is because members continually came to visit his wife, even after a period of inactivity. He has a lot of potential!

Life is good and I am well. I hope y'all are doing well!

Love 

Elder Jensen

PS.  Here is the cuff I converted.....

A crazy week!

Weeeeeeellllllll this was one heck of a week!

So we had a mission conference this week.... and a member of the Seventy came to speak with us. Elder Falabella. 

So because of my new responsibilities, most of my week was filled with counseling with a Seventy on how to hasten the work of salvation in this mission. It was quit an experience.

We serve in one of the zones where the mission conference was held we had to be early to help set up chairs... then we had a Desert leadership meeting... then the Mission Conference for like 6 or 7 hours....then we had a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader. Then Friday we had another meeting for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission. We left the desert to head down the hill at 1 and we didn't get back till 9. the meeting started a half hour late... and ran an extra hour and a half. So we were driving for like forever it seemed.

We did however manage to proselytize a little this week. We have a super solid investigator, He is a young man that live with and is cousins with an awesome member family in the ward. He has had a rough start on life but he has made some awesome decisions and is choosing to follow God now!

He will probably be baptized really soon!

Oh and we had a crazy awesome thunder storm this week... i got a cool video... but i can't take the frames with the lightning in them out to send to you! Thunderstorms never happen here!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Transfer Day

Well it seems like I send this email like every other month. But it was transfers today and I got transferred.  I am now serving in a city called AppleValley.

Elder Jensen and Elder Topham, the elder he's been training

I was really sad to say good bye to Silverlakes. Especially because I finally felt like I knew what I was doing with training. And I felt like there was unfinished business in that ward for me. But its all good. I am excited to still be in the desert. it is almost a guarantee that I will serve more than half of my mission up here now.

Not sure what else to say.

The last week was really busy. We found 3 new investigators, but I won't ever see them again :(

Life is good and busy.

Darion is well. With his new job, he says it will be hard to find a church to go to, because he can't leave the premises.

Elder Jensen and the ward missionaries

Elders with their ward mates, the Sisters

Elder Jensen and Elder Markham, his new companion

Love, 

Elder Jensen

PS. I am a ZL in AppleValley... I must have messed up training so pres. wants to keep a closer eye on me. hahaha just kidding.

10 months......!

Well this week was wired... i got to go on exchanges in a Tongan ward... so much food!!!!!!! And it was great to teach with a experienced elder again, not that I don't love training... it's just hard sometimes hahah

We met with our investigators a few times this week. Andrew is doing great! But we will have to pass him off. :(

Angel is also doing great, but we need to get him to read the Book of Mormon.

Darion is up in Sacramento area... some little town half way to Lake Tahoe. It was really sad to have to say goodbye to him. :( he asked us to say a prayer with his family every once in a while. so  our adventures with his family are not yet finished!

So not a lot of time this week!

Love

Elder Jensen

A New WEEK!

Well this week was going good... till I got these letters, or postcards or should I say RUB-IT-MY-FACE-PICTURES from Waterton. Is that even a place? I am pretty sure it is a mythical land full of fairies and centaurs hahaha

Actually the week went really well!

Sounds like your week has been as busy as mine! hahah

On the note of the temple, we are going to be going to the temple sometime soon. We are allowed to take our own names to the temple so if you have a male name that needs done please send it down here soon! I would love to be able to take a family name to the temple!

So as far as pictures go I can send pictures, but not videos. so I will send some more pics today, but no videos hahah sorry

so this week was alot better! hahah

Tuesday we were able to reteach Darion the Purpose and necessity of the Priesthood. It really helped him understand the he needs to be baptized in this church!!! It also helped him realize that he would just be joining a church here in Victorville, but that he would be joining a world wide church. We explained that no matter where he goes in the world he will be able to find the same church teaching the same things. This meant a lot because he will be moving up to Sacramento area this weekend. This will hopefully put him in a better environment to feel the spirit.

Wednesday we went to the trainee/trainer 4 week meeting, pretty much just to see if anyone is insane yet hahah we all are so things are good. so that took up most of the day, but we were still able to find a new investigator! so that was good!

Thursday one of the ZL's was sick so we helped them out again and did some mini exchanges. we were still able to teach a few people though which was really good.

Saturday we were on exchanges again. this time with Parkview elders. I was with my old companion Elder Clark again! it was great to be back with him! hahah it was just like old times hahah. We had a good day and were able to set a baptismal date with one of his investigators!  super cool!

Love you all here are some pictures... sorry the ones last week didn't turn out

Love

Elder Jensen

A bummer of a week....

So this week was one of those weeks that you wish you didn't have, but you know that if you didn't have them you wouldn't appreciate any of the other weeks.

so monday was monday... except darion stood us up which hasn't ever happened before... and we couldn't find him after.... sad face

Tuesday- we had Zone meeting. It was good and i got a lot of answers from it but it long. i felt. We did however find a new investigator. He is a kid that has been coming to church for a while... I thought he was a less active member... or like only came with family on certain weeks... turns out he isn't a member and wants to learn! So that was great!

Wednesday- Zone Conference. REALLY LONG!... like really long. we started at 8 am ( which meant we had to be there at 730-45 ish) and the meeating went till 2 ...then a provided lunch... then i had a leadership meeting for another hour after that... so didn't do hardly any missionary work that day... kinda sucked. We did see Darion that evening, but it was kinda a shakey lesson and it left us wondering if we should baptize him or wait a little longer..

Thursday- Exchanges. Went really well actually. It was one of the bright spots in the week. the elder I was with is almost done and is a little trunky, but he still is a great missionary and a really simple teacher! it was a good day! Also saw Darion again... again shakey lesson.

Friday- weekly planning- missionaries dread weekly planning. We did get to help set up for the Sisters investigator's wedding ( don't worry we just did tables and chairs... no colors or clothes for me hahah) Then Darion was supposed to have his baptismal interview... but he didn't show... sad face. Definitely pushing his baptism back a little ways.

Saturday- taught Darion.... we asked him about Friday.... he said that he was stuck at the county office. We asked him if he felt ready... he said he felt ready, but not. 

Sunday- church... then we taught Cee again and it went really well actually.

He even committed to read and pray.

Hopefully the pics i send this week work!

Love you all!

Elder Jensen

The life of a missionary

So this week was well normal I guess... nothing is ever normal it seems. Hahaha

So nothing crazy to report really... just another week.

OK thats not true. Darion is doing great! We moved his baptism back a week. But that is for the better. We taught him on Saturday and it was one of the coolest lessons ever. So to preface this story, I am not sure if i have said this in one of my previous letters... but Darion lives with 5 of his siblings... in one house... I have seen 25 different people there, all regularly and I think that like 15 or 18 actually live there... so it is kinda crazy! So we started out the way we usually do asking about his day and life and he said that he was good but that he and his sister had had a "moment." I was thinking a bad moment... like they got in a fight, but instead he said that she had been asking questions about Jesus and church and religions in general. We asked if she would want to listen to us and at first he said no, but he thought about it for a minute and then went and got her. She came in and listened to us and the first two questions she asked were "Why are there so many churches?" and " How do we know which is right or true?" I just about jumped up off the floor! (yeah, we teach on the floor). We taught her the restoration and she committed to read and pray and even came to church on Sunday! It was great!

So that is the miracle of the week! Hopefully next week there will be more. We are planning on teaching Darion and two of his sisters tonight! 

We also found another investigator this week. His name is Cee! He is cool and wants to learn more about God and Jesus. We told him we could teach him! 

Life is good and I am well! Love and miss you all!

Love

Elder Jensen

PS. Got the Bike and the Suit problems fixed! Got a suit and watch and tie for 180! So that was sweet!... The place I got it is like if Sears and Ross had a baby hahahah pretty cool place... we need one in canada.

Fires... what fires.... those are like so two weeks ago... hahah but i am used to sirens... hear em all day.

Daniel we haven't seen this week... Damyeune got the priesthood on Sunday! so that was good to hear!... and Carlos is Carlos! hahah

So jealous you guys are going camping and to wasa and waterton!... none of that here

Sad to hear about Brother Bev.

I Hope Great Grandma and Grandpa are still around in 3-4 years! i want to have another 5 gen pic!!!!

A crazy week!

So this week was nuts! On Monday I got the wonderful privileged to been a companion to Elder's Carter and Gifford down the Hill while we waited for our companions to get in. We had a great time and taught this kinda crazy guy ( imagine that, as a missionary hahah) Then Tuesday I went to a district meeting that had 3 district leaders at it... hahah. And then at like 1 or 1:30 we got our new companions. My new comp is Elder Topham. He is from St George area. And we have had an amazing week!

So Tuesday we finally got up the hill at like 6:30 after a lot of meetings, errands, waiting and traffic. 

Wednesday we got  Elder Topham settled in the went out working. In the evening we taught Darion and it went amazing! We had a member with us and we taught about Following the prophet. the members testimony really helped Darion! 

Thursday was full of walking. My bike is down and Elder Topham's hasn't come yet. so We walk everywhere for now... but this week we won't have too.

But we did Find a new investigator. His name is Daniel, he has great desire to learn... but he will need to prioritize if he wants to join the church hahah. Then after that we taught one of our recent converts. She has such a strong testimony it is so cool!

Friday was weekly planning and then we saw Carlos. He is also Doing great! He blessed the sacrament for the first time in church and did an amazing job! It is always interesting watching someone do something for the first time! But he did so good!

Saturday nothing remarkable happened till the evening. We did see Darion again. We went over the baptismal questions with him and he was able to answer most of them. There are still a few things we need to work with him on so we will probably move his baptism back a week.

Sunday we got a referral from the ward for a kid that I thought was a member... turns out his girlfriend is a member and he just comes every week! So that is super exciting!! Hopefully we will be able to help him come closer to God!

Love

Elder Jensen

Life is crazy busy here!

Hey so this is the only email I am sending that has any info regarding my life as a missionary and what happened this week. I just don't have time to write a big one. 

As far as the earthquake... yeah it must have been small cuz i didn't feel it. The elders in Rancho did but not me. I have felt them before though. That's awesome that Aaron is on high council! HE will do so great!

Life is crazy busy here! So last week we had some sweet miracles with Darion ( HE told us he believes that the BoM is true and Joseph smith was a true prophet, HE came to church with his sister again) The biggest one was on Saturday we went to have a lesson with him and he wasn't home. He stood us up. Never does that, but the lesson before we grilled him on the WoW so we were wondering if we scared him off.. so we went to the park to find him and on our way there. Elder Roberson said he lets go this way... I feel that we should. So I follow and the road he takes goes in a big circle and puts us right back where we started. So now he feels kinda dumb... but we roll like another 30 yards and we see Darion and were able to have a really good lesson with him!

On Sunday I learned a lot about the purpose of church! It was cool. This week I also learned a lot about baptism. 

So transfer calls came.... and I am now a trainer and a district leader... over 5 companionships (myself included) and 3 are training new missionaries. So life just got busy!!

Yes I got the camera. It works great! 

Love 

Elder Jensen

PS.  Damyeune got baptized too!

Crazy Week!!!!!!!!

Well this week was nuts!!!!!!! So like it was crazy... I don't even know what to say about it.... we were just busy busy busy. 

Elder Latu was with Elder Roberson and I again for most of this week, but the Tripanionship came and went way too fast! We had a lot of fun together!

So to clarify any confusion. Darion and Damyeune are not the same person... Damyeune is not our investigator anymore... we passed him off to another set of elders and he is to be baptized next Saturday! 

Darion IS our investigator. And he is doing great we taught him three times this week! it was great! So the first time we did what is called a CPR lesson... Pretty much the essentials to living: Church, Prayer and Reading the scriptures. We had invited him to church a few times but he hasn't come in the 3 Sundays we have been teaching him.. so we cracked down on that. Elder Latu bore a powerful testimony of church and committed him to come! It was amazing...more on that in a second. The next lesson we taught the law of chastity... it went as well as expected. We also invited him to the baptism of our ward mates investigator on Friday. So on Thursday ( the day before the baptism) we are trying to find us and Darion a ride over to the baptism... and we just couldn't. (OH and did I mention that me and my companion are heavily involved in the baptism... like we need to be there?) It wasn't happening.  But as we sit down to plan... like at 9 on the dot we get a phone call and a text confirming everything for our rides! Whoosh! So Friday morning ... the day of the baptism we go to Darion and confirm that he is going... got to one of  the members house that is giving us a ride and leave me there ( with a capable Melchizedek priesthood holder) He was conducting the baptismal service so we figured that I would be there early enough to change... LOL nope not quite hahah oh well it worked out. Meanwhile, my companions go back to Darion's house and meet another member there and some how beat me to the baptism. But what matters is that Darion came to that baptism and he felt the spirit!!! it was great!

Saturday... lil bit o rain nothing too bad. We taught Darion again and made sure he was coming to church. At first we thought he was trying to get out of it.... but instead he asked if his sister and her kids could come! It was great!

Sunday! We met Darion and the ride we found for him at his house and he and his sister and her kids came to church! Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And they enjoyed it. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had to take Elder Latu back :( sad day. At this point it was raining like crazy!

Love

Elder Jensen

Ps. one pic is of the fire that was close to me. and the other is of Elder Latu, Elder Roberson and I.  The fire was like 20 miles from where I am. It was pretty bad apparently.  One set of elders was displaced for a day... but then they were able to go back. I think the total for the fire damages was 26 or 27 cars( some on a semi that was carrying them) 1 fedex truck and 6 or 7 houses.  

(See more about the fire near Elder Jensen that we saw on Canadian news GLOBAL TV)

One Heck of a week

So this week was crazy.

On Monday we got our Two week missionary ( I think I mentioned him last week, if not well now I did). 

Then Tuesday was Zone Meeting. Really good.... but really long and dry at points. Then we started working and Elder Latu (our two-weeker) got two flats on his borrowed bike. 

Wednesday we were on exchanges and me and Elder Latu were back with my old comp Elder Clark! So we fixed the flats and then like 10 minutes later he got another one so we fixed that one too hahah.

We were still able however to teach Darion and it went really well. After we finished teaching the plan of salvation we had him re-tell us it. He did it very well, something  I thought he would struggle with. At the end of the lesson his sister (one of the many that are there) asked if next time she could join us! We said ABSOLUTELY!

thursday.... can't remember... nothing too crazy obviously...

Friday-weekly planning. A little bit of service moving a couch for a member. then we taught Darion again. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ or the first 4 principles and ordinances of the church and the Word of wisdom! He committed to live the word of wisdom and said it would help him in his life! and Now he has a baptismal date of AUG 15!

Saturday we were supposed to go to two child of record baptisms ... but didn't... we thought that they were the same one... and we properly excused our selves from one... but not the other....................... so that happened... but it worked out better for us. Then my seat post broke on my bike... that also happened... so then my bike looked like it fit in with Victorville... gotta have something Ghetto about you. As missionaries are encouraged to embrace the culture so... hahah then we walked in the evening... cuz my bike was hard to ride. and Elder Roberson got a really bad sunburn... like lobster bad hahah. During our walking Elder Latu asked us what we talk to people about when we street contact them... and we were like..."pretty much whatever" so we decided we had best teach him what street contacting is like: 

        So we are walking and we see this guy who is working on his old car ('67 mustang it was really nice!!!!!). As we walk up I see a sticker on his other car for a church that does a lot of anti-mormon stuff. so I am thinking to my self " Welp!... We wanted to teach him what street contacting is like and he is gonna figure it out." We start talking to him about his mustang ... I know enough about cars to fake a convo ... but Elder Roberson doesn't know much so he was 100% faking hahah. So we chat about his car for like half an hour and its really cool. Then the conversation turns to God and religion and for like an hour we have an amazing Spirit-filled conversation about the differences and similarities between our churches and our beliefs! Turns out this guy is a teacher/leader of sorts at his church. It was really cool because normally when you talk with members of this church (which we do a lot), especially leaders, they like to get up in our grill about things but this was a very polite and easy conversation. It was also kind of interesting to see how his attitude changed while were there. At first he was at a 9 on the uncomfortable scale and you could tell he was very nervous around us. He was stammering a lot and fighting really hard to stay the leader of the conversation. But as it went he got more comfortable and stuttered less. He was probably at a 4 when we left.

Sunday was church and dinner with one of the funniest guys ever hahah! Just one of those members. hahaha

Love

Elder Jensen