Week 51

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

Well, this week was honestly pretty uneventful. Elder Cox has been sick most of the week and we have not been able to get out and do to much.

Tuesday we went on exchanges and Elder Smith and I helped this family move a super heavy air hockey table with a couple of guys who only spoke Portuguese so that was fun. Then as we were driving around Olathe in Johnson County I saw some of the biggest houses I have ever seen in my life. They were huge! You literally had to drive under part of their house to get to the courtyard where the garages were.

Then through a failure to communicate I ended up forgetting all of my stuff at the Heritage Parks apartment, so for two days I slept on just a plain mattress with a sweatshirt for a blanket. That was fun...

We went Christmas caroling with a family in our ward. It was actually pretty fun. The family we went with could actually sing, so I just stood in the back and tried to not ruin it.

We went to go get my bedding and stuff back and as we pulled into the parking lot we realized that our bumper had fallen partially off and was dragging on the ground. We had lots of appointments and we were pretty much busy for the next two days and then it was Christmas time and everywhere was closed. Our car guy just told us to duct tape it, so thats what we did.

 

Christmas Eve was pretty normal. We had dinner with a family with little kids and after dinner we helped the dad move a big trampoline up from the basement. He said once it was all set up that we could jump on it. :) 

Christmas day was awesome! Thank you so much for the stuff you guys sent me. I think I have more candy than I have ever had in my life.  We opened gifts, went to church, had lunch with a family who made home made pizzas, then went straight to dinner with another family. Then we got to Skype our families. That was really awesome. They said that I need to send more pictures of me in my emails so ... we'll see what happens.

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your support, the mission is awesome! 

Make it a good one.

Elder Jensen

 

 

Week 50

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

 

This week has been pretty interesting. We didn't do hardly anything because Elder Cox has been sick a lot of the week, but the stuff that did happen was pretty cool.

On Monday we stopped at the church to use the wifi to sync our Ipads and people had just finished setting up for the ward party. Well, apparently the Fishers (a recent convert couple) left their phone there so we offered to take it back to them but we had to go to dinner first. So we get to our dinner appointment, it was good then at the end the brother was sharing some of his favorite scriptures and it was a pretty spiritual moment then all of the sudden we hear fire alarms going off and a voice saying "its the wife, its the wife".  Then Elder Cox pulls an IPhone 6 out of his pocket and apparently Sister Fisher was trying to call Brother Fisher. It was hilarious. Later we were curios to see what Bro Fisher's ringtone was for us. So we call the phone and the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah started playing. It was awesome.

Tuesday morning we had to be up at Liberty, Missouri for a Zone Conference. So to make it on time we had to stay the night with another set of elders. So you have 4 elders, 2 beds and 1 couch, that still leaves someone on the floor, and I was the lucky one for that job. So instead of sleeping on the flat ground, I slept in their tub and it was actually really comfy and I slept really well. The conference was awesome and as a Christmas gift we all did a session in the Kansas City, Missouri temple. It was cool to see 60 missionaries all standing in a little celestial room.

Wednesday Elder Cox was sick, so we went to the church and watched cheesy church videos and played the piano. I took a nap underneath the piano.

Thursday was cool. We were trying a potential investigator, it was probably someone the missionaries had tracted into about 2 years ago. So we knocked on the door and the guy opened it and let us right in because it was cold. He used to live in Wyoming and knew lots of members there. He said that he had always wanted to read the Book of Mormon but never had the chance. We informed him that we had a free copy to give him and he was very excited, he looked like a kid on Christmas. Then as we were leaving we found out that it actually wasn't the person we were looking for, he must have moved some time ago. This guy was just a total stranger and had never really talked with missionaries before. We set up a return appointment for this coming week.

Friday we volunteered at a retirement home and we got to play a game with about 6 old ladies. We all sat around the table and had 2 ft long pool noodles and we just hit a balloon around. It was hilarious and those ladies had the time of their lives. Our job was to get the balloon when ever it fell out of reach.

Sat it stormed pretty bad and we couldn't do a whole lot but we made a couple of visits. The ward party was supposed to be that night but they canceled it because of the bad road conditions. Then on Sunday they canceled church because people have to drive from 45+ minutes on really bad roads to get to church. Since the roads were bad enough they grounded our car, so we ended up walking all day and it was pretty cold. It said about 0 degrees but with the wind chill and the humidity it felt about -15. I learned that no one really likes to talk to you when it's that cold. It was pretty fun though the roads were slick enough and my shoes were bald enough that I literally was skating down the street like I had ice skates on. I'm guessing it looked pretty comical to watch two Mormon missionaries skating down the street. Although Elder Cox being from southern Nevada does not know how to walk on ice. It was a good day.

 

Thank you so much for all that you guys do, it really means a lot.

 

Make it a good one,

Elder Jensen

 

Week 49

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

 

This week has been great with some unique stuff. First off we helped an older couple move a fridge and the fridge was literally frozen. The morning was really cold and it had snowed/iced and the fridge was covered in ice. So that was fun.

I hit my 11 month mark, that's weird.

On Wednesday it SNOWED! Finally. But I was on exchanges in Olathe and didn't expect the snow so I only brought a light jacket. And we were in a walk area. Yay!  So we walked all over Olathe and froze to death and preached the gospel. That was cool. I have also learned that humidity just makes things worse, either colder or hotter. So a 11 degrees here (which that's about what it was) it probably feels like about a -5 back home.

 

We had a couple cool lessons this week mostly with less active members. We have mostly been sharing the church's new initiative, Light the World. Which is awesome and its all about service.

On Saturday we caught a ride with a member up to Olathe for the Stake Leadership meeting and then the adult session of stake conference. And at the adult session Matt Pennington, a man I had the privilege to teach and help join the church, was asked to bear his testimony. And it was very powerful. It has had an amazing impact in the way I view my calling and knowing what one missionary, as he is guided really is just a tool for the Lord to do his work. It is amazing.

Then on Sunday the Fishers, a couple in the Ottawa ward, were asked to bear their testimonies. Although I was transferred into Ottawa just 5 days after their baptism, I feel a sense of responsibility for them. I have been able to help them as new converts entering into a brand new world and being the person they can answer questions and seek council. I feel a great source of joy from our union. Nothing has brought me more happiness than seeing someone change their lives and come to a knowledge that God loves them and they are where they need to be. 

I am reminded of D&C 15:6 where the Lord tells us the thing that will be of greatest worth to us. 

"6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen."

I know of no better place to be than in a place where we can affect the lives of others in a positive way. I know that this is the true church. That Jesus is the Christ and it is only because of His Atoning sacrifice that we may become perfected and live as a family with our Father in Heaven again. I have seen the joy that comes to people as they change, I have seen it when people have the "light bulb" moment when everything makes sense and I cannot describe the feeling that comes and the happiness and the honor I feel to have a friendship with these people. And I cannot wait for the time that we may rest with them in the kingdom of our Father.

Thank you all for the support that you have given me. You all are examples to me.

Make it a good one,

Elder Jensen

 

Week 48

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

This week has been kinda boring overall, but with a few cool highlights.

On Tuesday we went looking for a referral that we received, but he lives way out in the boonies. So we took a couple "low maintenance roads". We drove through a small river and didn't see anything for a while. Finally we come to a Dead End sign and we keep going and then it was the very last house all the way at the end. We drive up the long driveway, as we approach a man leaves the house and is walking towards the shop. So to be the least amount of awkward we can, we jump out and say "Hey do you know so and so"? He hesitated and said that he did know him but he was his son and lived in Wichita. But, he offered to let us come in. So we went into his shop and turns out it was a gun store. Out in the middle of nowhere Kansas is this nice gun store and he was showing us some of his competition stuff, it was awesome. He wasn't interested but he was nice and had cool stuff.

Elder Cox got a little sick this week so we weren't able to do a whole lot. We did help the Gardner Elders rake some leaves for a less active member so that was fun.

We had apartment inspections this week, which actually worked out well because we couldn't really leave the apartment. Elder Cox could sit down and clean, so we spent almost a whole day cleaning... yeah. But we passed the inspection pretty well, they didn't even yell at us.

Elder Cox has been in the Christmas spirit and wanted some new Christmas lights. He went and bought 500 cheap lights and strung them up in our apartment. We took some funny pictures but they are panoramic so hopefully they will send alright. 

Up in Olathe at the stake center they have a huge Nativity display every year. People bring nativities and they have about 300 of them and they decorate the gym and have live bands playing Christmas music. They do it for about three days so we went up with a recent convert couple. While we were there I got to see and talk to people I taught in my last area, my last companion, and some members from my first area, so that was super cool.

We were just stopping by a member's house and apparently they had just gotten a 5 month old Great Dane. And they wanted to show us but there daughter was taking it for a walk and apparently the dog decided it was done walking. So we walked to go find her and then we had to carry the 60 pound puppy back home. It was not the most graceful thing I've done, but the dog was super cool.

Well thanks for another week of lots of fun. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for the Christmas wishes!

Make it a great one,

Elder Jensen

 

 

Week 47

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox
 

So this week started off pretty cool. A member asked if we could help him out in picking up some food for a local food drive. Even though it was cutting about 3 hours out of our P-day. We meet him at Walmart and he had the money that was donated. As we start shopping we ran into a less active family and were able to have a good contact with them. Then later we saw an investigator couple and were able to set up an appointment with them. Then a worker asked us why we were dressed up and we were able to explain that we were missionaries, and he had actually lived in Utah for a while but wasn't a member, I didn't know that was possible. Then as we left the same less active lady was leaving and we helped her put her groceries in the car. So yeah the Lord knows his children and places them where they need to be. It was a testimony builder to me that service really opens the gates for so many blessings.

On Wednesday we helped a member rake his leaves. I had never done it before and I didn't realize that it is kinda physically demanding. I didn't really realize it until later that night but I was really tired. I made it through nightly planning, no doubt with the help of the Lord, but then in our prayer to close planning I totally fell asleep. Then I guess Elder Cox just left me there. About 15 min later we were sitting in our chairs writing in our journals and Elder Cox started talking to me and I fell asleep again. So then I just gave up and went to bed.

Thursday for Thanksgiving we were invited to a family's dinner in Lane, Kansas - a town that might have 100 people in it. But it was pretty cool and awkward at the same time because they are the only members in their family so everyone else had no idea who we were, but they were extremely nice and the food was good.

The rest of the week was just trying to contact people and trying to find new investigators. No luck yet but we are doing well with less active members, we had some cool lessons this week as well.

Thank you all for all you do. It is really quite amazing the amount that I have been able to experience. I couldn't trade it for anything.

Elder Jensen

This was a good purchase.

 

 Elder Cox didn't believe me that I could sleep in a bath tub, so I did.

Week 46

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox
 

This week has been fun, it was a little bit of a slower week but still good. Not much happened at the beginning of this week, just talked to a lot of people who weren't interested in the gospel, yet. We learned that both Elder Cox and I are staying in Ottawa for another transfer. And this transfer has both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that's gonna be exciting. Both Elder Cox and I gave talks on Sunday again. His was on Faith so I talked about Hope. Hopefully it was alright. 

We have decided to try to visit more active people and to ask for more referrals. We haven't seen any fruit from it yet but hopefully this will increase the number of solid people we find.  

We didn't have too many people sign up on our dinner calendar this week and it gets dark so soon now. What we have been doing is making active member visits around dinner time and it usually only takes 2 maybe 3 houses before someone offers us dinner in exchange for a message. So we are still getting in and sharing the spirit with others!

It was rather interesting though, I think we might have become marriage counselors or something. There is a couple in the ward that is struggling and we actually helped her move out (super awkward by the way) but bishop had asked us to try to stop by both of them separately and see how they were doing. We hadn't been able to get a hold of the husband but on Wednesday he actually texted us and asked if he could receive a blessing. Then later she asked us to come over and they were both there and we gave her a blessing as well. It was a very sweet experience and an example to me that real people have real life problems. I think they are handling their situation in the most adult and mature way possible, and that is what will probably save their marriage. 

We have been given many service opportunities and been able to give many blessings this week and it has been amazing. 

There is a less active member that the missionaries have been visiting every week for probably years now, but he is finally coming back to church. He seems to like it and he's been back for about 3 weeks now, and the ward is talking about giving him a calling! 

Anyway, that is my life in a nutshell. Work hard, have fun, the gospel is true everywhere, God loves all of us.

Thank you for all that you do.

Elder Jensen

Week 45

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

This week has been good. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Merrill in the Heritage Park ward. We had dinner with a family whose son just entered the mission field. So they had lots of questions and they basically adopted the missionaries as their proxy sons. They made really good food. It was about 7:00 and pitch black outside but we didn't have anything else to do so we knocked on the door of a potential and a guy hurriedly opened the door and then he looked confused and turned to someone else and said "oh it's not her". Then there was kinda an awkward silence and Elder Merrill said "sorry we're not her" then he basically told us to go away.  

I have had problems with my iPad. The software that the church uses to control the ipads unenrolled itself. So we got a call from Salt Lake saying that I had to fix it. Which ultimately led to me having to completely wipe my iPad and starting it again. So since I didn't have the passcode to do that, I had to just enter my passcode wrong so many times and it wiped it for me. But it took a couple of days to be able to do it because of exchanges. So we got a call on Wednesday and the guy from Salt Lake said I had to do it soon or they would "have to.... take action". So I figured I better do it. And it took so flippin long, like 4 hours. 

President Boyack (the stake president) went out on a team up with us, it was awesome. We just sat back and listened and learned about eternal life. It was super cool.

Saturday we drove all around the middle of nowhere with our ward mission leader, who was sick. Now I might be getting sick, but all is well.

Today we went out to literally nowhere and somewhere, I'll send some pictures.

Elder Oram, Elder Jensen, Elder Parker, Elder Cox

Thanks for all the support you guys send. You are awesome. Make it a good week.

Elder Jensen

 

Week 44

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

Well, overall this week has been relatively  normal. On Halloween we carved pumpkins at P-day, then we went home and did weekly planning.

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Smith, my district leader, who was also my MTC companion. It was cool to see how much we both have grown. 

Thursday we had a recent convert couple take us to this place called Louisburg cider mill. They grow their own apples and make basically everything under the sun with them. It was cool. We were able to see them make cider and donuts and then we ate them, so that was a plus. 

A cool miracle that we saw this week - a member had a baby but they had a couple packages arrive at their house the same day. So they asked us to pick up the packages. Then a couple days latter we felt like we should stop to see if they were home even though they weren't supposed to be back until the next day. We stopped by and they literally had gotten home maybe 1-2 minutes earlier and we delivered their mail and helped them bring everything in. You know you're doing something right when you show up just at the right time.

We received a referral from church HQ. It was in a town at the far south end of our area about 45 minutes away. Because of miles we only get to go down once every 2 weeks and it was going to be a little while until we could go down. Then about an hour later our ward mission leader called us and asked if we were available to help him do some service down in that town for an elderly lady the next day. So he drove us down and we did the service, changed in a super nasty garage with a wide open door that couldn't close, and contacted the referral. She was a very nice lady and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she accepted one. We will be going back next week!

Sorry this email is a little bit shorter, but not that much exciting stuff happened this week I guess. Thank you for all of your support. Make it a good week!

Elder Jensen

Week 43

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox
 

This week has been full of miracles and fun times. Monday we got to go down to Chanute (my first area) and see some sweet people. It was a ton of fun and it was awesome to see people again. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures. 

On Tuesday the Gardner Elder's water line broke so they slept over at our apartment. That was fun. I will say the result of that night was a squirrel hide, some funny videos, an assortment of flavored chicken (including grape jelly) and a LOT of ice cream. 

We also got to do some service putting up plastic sheeting on a super old house from the 1800s. I had catfish for the first time, which was super good and I carved a pumpkin.

We street contacted someone who apparently is a former investigator and is super friendly toward missionaries and is having us over next week. Then I found someone who used to live in Rigby! Small world.

The wards chili cook off was Saturday and it was super good. There was buffalo chili and chili with cinnamon and I had chili with ghost peppers in it. Basically every redneck, hillbilly thing you could think of, it was probably there. And there were lots of non-members there, some of them were actually pretty interested, so that will be cool. I also got to eat squirrel. Kansas man.

Sunday I was really focused on getting a solid new investigator, and I fasted and prayed. Then right after church we got a text from our zone leaders who said "there is a member whose son just moved to Ottawa with his non-member girlfriend". So we went and met them. The address was right but the name was wrong, but they let us in anyway. They were really nice and willing to have us come back! Prayers are answered.

 

Anyway, this week has been pretty awesome. I am loving it out here. It's a lot of work, but the reward of helping someone is incomprehensible. Thank you for all your support. Keep moving forward.

Elder Jensen



I asked for pictures that included his face since he hasn't sent any for a few weeks - and this is what he sent.....

 

Week 42!

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

 

This week has been good. We have really been working with a lot of less active people and we have seen a lot of people this week.

So where we park our car is right under a couple huge maple trees and there are lots of birds in them and they like to poop on the car, but it's usually not too bad. But the other morning we went out and the car had like mountains of bird poop on it and the first thing Elder Cox said was "oh I didn't think that birds pooped when it was humid" so that was a good start to our day. 

A cool miracle that happened was that we tried to contact a lady who had gone online and ordered a Bible and we were delivering it for her. She wasn't there but her husband was and he wasn't really interested but he told us to go to his grandmother's house. So we did and it turns out that she is a member who was baptized several years ago in Paola. Finding the lost sheep!

Then Elder Cox convinced the whole district to do a "district breakfast" before district meeting. The night before it was decided that it would be a district lunch, but with breakfast food. Elder Cox volunteered us for pancakes. We went and bought two boxes of pancakes and two bags of chocolate chips then made probably 30ish Mancakes - they were huge. So that was fun.

A member made us pumpkin soup... it had chunks of pumpkin and peppers and other things I didn't ask about... I am glad that I have tried it but I probably wont try it again. 

A sister in the ward asked us to help her move and right before we get there Elder Cox is like "oh yeah, so she is moving out on her husband and I don't think he knows about it. So if he shows up its gonna be super awkward." Then sure enough as we and the high priest group leader were moving stuff out he showed up. Luckily I think the sister had told him but it was still super awkward as we were just moving stuff and putting it into a truck. Plus side is the high priest group leader took us out to lunch. 

So those are some of the highlights from this week. I learned lots and had some memorable experiences, it was fun. Thank you for all the support you guys give me. It means a lot. You're awesome!

Elder Jensen

Week 41

Area: Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Cox

This week has been pretty fun. Monday and Tuesday were spent trying to get in contact with people. One of the investigators was temporarily living in hotels in Ottawa, so we tried tracking him down. We asked hotel management for some personal information that we were pretty sure they weren't allowed to give us, but they gave it to us anyway. So that was sweet.

Wednesday we were helping a family clean out their garage and they had this monstrous desk that we couldn't move very well by ourselves. So we just got a sledge hammer and had a little bit of stress management practice on this desk, that was fun. Then we had dinner with a family  but the husband was sick. They usually come to the church and have dinner there, but since there wasn't another male we just set up a table in the parking lot and had dinner. It was a super windy day, but the food was really good so that was a plus. 

Thursday we had to drive to Olathe because we had to swap our car with another companionships car. As they were handing us the keys they told us everything that was wrong with the car which included two of the tires had small holes in them and we needed to fill up with air every couple of hours. So we drove to Olathe and they put new tires on and got it all fixed up.

Friday we had Zone Training and the Stake President came and trained for like 1 1/2 hours and expounded on many mysteries of the gospel and it was super cool. I loved it.

Saturday we had a baptism for Blake Taylor who is a 9-year old we have been working with. His grandpa is the 2nd counselor and was the one to baptize him. It was a very good service and everything actually went pretty smooth for a change.

 

We were asked to go visit a lady in the hospital. She was there, but we had to wait like 45 minutes to talk to her. We gave her a blessing which was cool.

We also found out that I am related to some of the members here. The Youngs and Benches. Sister Young and I share the same great-great grandpa - Lorenzo Jensen. Then Bro Young's Grandpa Denzel Jensen is my great grandpa Orland Jensen's brother. Small world.

Sunday I was able to participate in Blake's confirmation and an ordination to the priesthood for another recent convert. Then we were able to teach three RCLAs after church 

So that was pretty much it for this week. Thank you for your patience, you guys are awesome. Make it a good one.

Elder Jensen

Olathe Zone

 

Week 40

Area: Leavenworth, KS and Ottawa, KS
Companion: Elder Peterson and Elder Cox

This week has been pretty interesting. Big news is that I have been transferred to the Ottawa Ward! It is the area directly over the Iola ward which was my first area! So that's super cool. I am still in Kansas... but because we are so close to my last area, we are going to try to stop and see some people which will be sweet!

Ottawa is really cool though and it turns out that I very well might be related to some of the members here.  

So this week has kinda been a whirlwind and I don't really remember what happened the first part of the week. But, I did get to say goodbye to Herbert and got some sweet pictures. Then I came to Ottawa with Elder Cox, who is from Mesquite Nevada. He has been out for 13 months. He is awesome.

We met a couple of crazy rednecks out in the boonies, that was fun.

We do have a 9 -year old who is planning on getting baptized this Saturday. I got to milk a goat, I had Moroccan food, and I wrestled a mini horse. So that's been Ottawa so far.

I am sorry that this is a shorter one. I miss you guys.

Love ya

Elder Jensen

Week 39

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Peterson

 

This week has been kinda slow, so I will just share some of the highlights.

On Tuesday we had a man call us and said that he had talked to the Sister missionaries at the Independence Visitor's Center and they had given him our phone number. He was interested in our family history resources and wanted to know how to access them. So we told him that we have a family history center at the church building. They went and had a very good time and were very impressed by the church. We set up a time to go see him on Wednesday. We got to know them and invited them to learn more about what we believe and the restored gospel, but they were not interested in learning more. 

We had lunch with this lady from our ward who is 91 and still teaches music at her home. I got to play on a 110+ year old piano and she had a darbuka and a set of bongos and she taught us how to play the Spanish guitar, so that was super cool.

One of the investigators Elder Peterson taught up in Atchison was getting baptized this week so we were able to see that. It was really cool. It is just a branch up there so their baptismal font is a portable one and is basically a waist high 5x5 pool.

Then of course conference happened and it was amazing. We just watched it at the church building, but because we have a deaf family in our ward it was all on the ASL channel - which was very different. I definitely learned a lot more about sign language than I thought I would from conference.

Anyway that was my week. Thank you all for your support. You guys are awesome - thank you!

Elder Jensen

Week 38

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Peterson
 

This week has been a lot of fun. It was walk week and the beginning of this week was ridiculously humid and hot. You know it was a good day when you can ring out your belt.

We had a little competition last week and by doing things like asking for referrals or talking to people on the street we would get a point. Then the loser has to buy the winner something. But last week we tied, so we each bought something. I bought Elder Peterson a Deadpool mask that actually looks pretty good and he loved it because he loves Deadpool and scaring people like the 1st ward elders. And then in return he got me some sweet Marvel socks. They are super cool but after he got them we looked and they are for people with a shoe size of about 4-6 which I definitely do not wear that size of shoe, but they are still cool.

Tuesday we just walked around and everybody canceled on us and we met some people with very opinionated views on the church and it was like a million degrees... it was one of those days.

Wednesday was super cool. We got called to give a lady a blessing. We don't really know them because they are deaf and go to the deaf ward in Olathe. But it was a really cool experience. Then we were visiting an active family and they asked if we could help give their son a blessing so we got to stand in while his father gave him a blessing. So that was awesome.

Thursday we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders, so Elder Conely came to Leavenworth with me and we had a lesson with Herbert and had some fun times.

Friday we pretty much just went out and tried to find people. We did have a cool experience, we were at a member's house and he asked for a blessing. So we were able to do that.

Saturday Herbert got Baptized! It was awesome and it was really fun. Herbert used to be a professional opera singer so he has a good voice but he can't hear very well anymore. But he was very passionate about the songs we were singing. He was either 2 words behind everyone else or he was a full verse ahead of everyone. And he sang it with all of his might. It was pretty great.  Elder Staheli (my last companion) was able to come and be a witness for it, so that was cool. 

 

Elder Peterson, Herbert, Elder Jensen, Elder Staheli, Elder Haderly
 

Then on Sunday Elder Peterson was able to confirm Herbert a member of the church and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost again. Then Herbert got up and bore his testimony. It was really good.

Literally as I was writing this we got a call to go give another blessing. Blessings are the best.

This week was full of miracles and hardships, but it is all worth it and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thank you all for you support.

Elder Jensen

 

Apparently my hair has gotten pretty blond. I didn't realize it until I saw this picture.

Week 37

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companions Elder Peterson
 

This week has been a little slow, but it has been good. 

We had another really cool lesson with Mitchell and Angela. Hopefully they will start to progress soon.

We went on exchanges this week. Wednesday I went up to Parkville with Elder Reber who just came out last transfer. So apparently they had offered to help these people with their gardening at like 8:00 the next morning. So as we are pulling up we pull into a huge apartment complex, and I am thinking "how does anyone have a garden here?" But as we are getting out of the car Elder Reber tells me "oh by the way they are not going to be here and I don't really remember which one is theirs and we don't have gloves, but its ok because I brought our house scissors." So we walk around to the back and luckily there was only one garden so we assumed it was theirs. And so we just kinda cut and pruned stuff until we were satisfied and then we left. So that was fun.

We had a lesson with this very wealthy family in Parkville who were so super nice. But the lesson was not going well and I could not figure out how to bring it all back. I just kept thinking the phrase: Teach people, not lessons. So I really tried to show my care for them and testified of the Savior and His redeeming power. And it totally changed the mood of the lesson and the rest went really well.

Then on Saturday we knew there was a wedding reception going on later that they wanted us to go to because there would be non-members there. So we thought "Well maybe they need help setting up" so we went right after studies and things were set up but the food was not ready. So they threw aprons on us and we started cooking and serving and we were there until 4:30 because we had to go to dinner. But we took home so many leftovers, it was amazing. We took probably 5 lbs just in fruit. It was glorious.

Also, Herbert had his baptismal interview and he is all set and ready to go for this Saturday. I am super excited - it will be sweet. 

Well that's all that happened this week that was really worth writing about. 

Thank you all so much, your support is so awesome. Thank you!

Elder Jensen

 

Week 36!

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Peterson

This week has been good.  We had interviews with President Vest and I got to ask him some doctrinal questions which was awesome!

The beginning of this week was so humid it literally felt like it was raining but the water drops were just suspended in the air and you just walked into them. Then on Friday there was a huge rain storm and from our apartment door running to the car we were completely soaked. But the good news is that since then the humidity has gone down a ton and the mornings are starting to dip down to the high 60s. It feels so good. I am excited for winter.

This week we have been trying to go through the ward roster and meet everybody we don't know. There are some interesting people in this world that is for sure. But some blessings we have seen from that is asking members who they know in the ward that could use a visit and it's been really cool to see the connections from that.

We also got 2 referrals this week! It was so awesome. We contacted one and she is interested and we have a return appointment for next week! The other one was a little different. He came out and apparently he has met with Elders before so he knew who we were and was very nice to us. But this week he has had quite the spiritual experience. He says that the spirit is telling him to do all these things like the Sabbath day is on Saturday and to go and mow his lawn on Saturday like 10 times and all sorts of things. He has been reading the bible a lot, so that's good. But he talked to us for like 1 1/2 hours and it was probably in the top 7 most memorable conversations of my life.

Another miracle, we had just got done with lunch and we were driving down the street to go see someone and a lady that lives just down the street from us flagged us down. So we turned around and she is this little 79 year old  lady from the Philippines and she asks if we want to go to lunch with a "lonely old woman" and we said " I guess if you twist our arms" so she took us to Applebee's. Apparently she took the last set of missionaries out and she just likes the company, but we talked about temples and stuff. It was cool.

On Sunday the primary asked us to come in and talk about missionaries and how awesome missions are. So we spent the whole time in primary and it was hilarious and very small. There were about 10 kids in both junior and senior primary.

Well that was pretty much my week. Thank you all very much for your support. It is always awesome to hear from you.
Make it a good week!

Elder Jensen

Week 35

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Peterson

This week has definitely been an interesting one.

Monday this super cool family had us over for dinner and they asked if they could invite any of our investigators. So we had them invite Herbert (the 87 year old who is planning on being baptized the 24th).  So Herbert came and had a really good time and then the Halls had us stay for family home evening which was fun. One of their sons I guess had seen a baby squirrel fall out of a tree and it was still on the ground several hours later. So he picked it up and they researched how to take care of it and now they have a pet squirrel, I have pictures.

Tuesdays we help out at this assistance living center (it's like a DI kinda) and they usually feed us lunch, which is awesome. They were having BLT sandwiches, although they did not have lettuce and I was not too excited about the T so I just pulled a bunch of bacon in between two pieces of bread and felt no shame from the judgmental stares of others :)

Wednesday on our way back from district meeting we had the Leavenworth 1st Ward Elders in the car with us. As we were driving through a busy intersection we saw that a pretty major crash had just
happend and there were people running around saying "call the 911". I guess a lady got hurt. But we pulled over to see if we could help and one of the cars that pretty much no longer had a front end drifted around the corner and sped past us and if I had gotten out of the car like 2 seconds later I probably would have gotten hit. So we walked to the crash site and there were two fire trucks, an ambulance and like 5 police cars. So we found one of the officers and told him that we had seen the car that caused the crash. So that was fun.

Thursday we had an appointment with Herbert and we asked him who he wanted to baptize him. And he said that he was going to call church headquarters and get a hold of his old Friend Dallin H. Oaks and see if he will baptize him. So that will be interesting to see what comes of that.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we really just walked around town and tried to street contact people and work through our potentials list and we really didn't meet anyone who was interested :( but we went out and worked so that was good. Although on Saturday morning we had an earthquake which was... interesting. I was in the bathroom and then all of the sudden the whole house just started to shake and stuff was falling off of bookshelves, it lasted for like 10 seconds and it was done. That was a first.

Another kinda funny story, so I went to bed one night and kinda had the thought that I should  put my glasses on my night stand. Then I thought "nah I always wear my glasses when I sleep, it will be fine". Well when I woke up the next morning they were gone. Just gone. I spent the next two days looking for them and could not find them anywhere. Then we moved my bed and a whole bunch of stuff trying to find it. Then Elder Peterson asked if I looked in the window sill right next to my bed. I said "yes, I have already looked there". Then he found them, they were on top of the window sill. As in I probably would have had to stand on my bed and put them up there. But there they were all nicely folded and gently put. I feel like it was Heavenly Father just giving me a reminder that he is in control and that I should listen better. So that was fun.

And that was my week. Thank you all so much. It has been a lot of fun serving the Lord and learning so much about who I am and what I want to become. Thanks!

Elder Jensen

Week 34

 Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli and Elder Peterson
 
This week has had a lot of changes, but it has been fun.

Monday we pretty much spent the whole day at the doctors getting medicine because I got attacked by some plants that bleed poison apparently, so that was fun

Tuesday we had a super cool lesson. There is an inactive lady in our ward and she was just assigned a new visiting teacher who made contact with her and asked if it would be ok if the missionaries came over because she has a non-member boyfriend. They were pretty apprehensive about people coming over in the first place but for whatever reason they said that they would try it. So we called and set up an appointment and we get there and we connected really well with them and were there for 2 hours. We shared a message on the atonement and they both shared some things they were going through and how that message was especially meaningful to them at that time. They are super cool and we are going to start going over and teaching the lessons!

Wednesday we got the call that Elder Staheli was going to be transferred, so we spent most of the day packing and saying goodbye to people.

Thursday we drove to Independence and Elder Peterson is my new companion. Elder Staheli was moved to the Independence 2nd Ward. That is funny because he has already served in the Indi 4th Ward before. But he was super excited even though it was sad to see him go. Elder Peterson is super cool though, he is from Lehi UT. He is the 2nd oldest of 4 kids and his dad is an officer for the  Lehi police station. He has been on his mission almost 11 months.

Friday we had 4 lessons that all worked out which was such a miracle. It was awesome and all but one of our team ups showed up as well!

Saturday we simply did finding all day long and sadly no real memorable stories came out of it. Except we knocked on this guys door whose name is Raul and his family is all Hindu and he was super buff - it honestly was a bit scary.

Sunday is always fun. Today we found a ton of old Tupperware that people have given the missionaries over who knows how long, but they all had names on it. So we drove around and dropped them all off after church. So that was fun.

I have kinda stumbled upon a new saying I am rather fond of - " be the one who turns on the light". So when you get up in the morning whoever is the first one out of bed usually turns on the light and gets going. Well I want to be the one who gets to the light first. I don't know why that hit me so much this week but ever since then I haven't missed a morning yet.

Well that was my week. Thank you all for the support and love you guys send. It is amazing to hear from you! You are the best.
Make it a good one.

Elder Jensen

Week 33

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli
 
So this week has had some awesome moments. Tuesday we were going to try a potential and we parked in front of a less actives house. We had knocked on their door like 2 weeks earlier and we had woken him up and he said that they were all sick and that it just was not a good time. So I said before we go try this potential why don't we knock on this LAs house to see if they are better yet. So we did and they let us in and we met his non-member wife and their two little girls and we had a lesson with them. It was awesome, we showed this video called Reclaimed which takes place in Idaho Falls and is about the atonement. The husband is not really interested in coming back right now but likes having us over. We invited them to a ward party on Saturday and the wife was able to make it! It was awesome.

Wednesday we were doing service for a family and it only ended up taking like 20 minutes. So before we got changed back into proselytizing clothes we called a sister whose husband is deployed in the Middle East to see if there was anything we could do for her. She actually did need some help and didn't know who to call. So we went over and moved some furniture while she stood outside the door and gave direction from across the house. Then we dug a hole for her.

Thursday and Friday we had some awesome appointments with Herbert and a recent convert named Hillary. I snagged some sweet pictures of Herbert I will try to send. Also I guess back in the day Herbert was a solo singer and he shared some of his CDs with us and so I took a video hopefully it will send as well.

Saturday Harlan Got Baptized!! It was awesome and he asked me to do it! He had a ton of family who was there and were an awesome support. We found out that a couple members of his family are members of the church in our ward, so that's awesome.

There was also a Ward Primary / Elders quorum cook off party that was a ton of fun and actually quite a few non- members showed up. I made a clown hat.

Sunday Elder Staheli confirmed Harlan so that was super cool and I gave a talk on prayer. I can send pictures of my notes if people want them just let me know. It was kinda weird though I really felt like I needed to share a story about my cousin Markus when we were tubing. It was the same one I shared at my farewell talk. And right at the end I kinda looked around and saw that people were crying, and I thought "oh no why are all these people crying?" And then I realized that I was getting very emotional and it was strange, I was not expecting that result out of that story. But it was hopefully good.

This week was very stressful but really awesome as well. Thank you all for the support and keep it up!

Make it a good one
Elder Jensen

He was happy to run into Elder Hansen (his trainer) at the mission office this week. Elder Hansen completes his mission on Thursday and will return home to Utah.

 

 

Week 32!

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli

This week has been fun and full of interesting things. Tuesday we had a lesson with Harlan. We had another appointment for later that night but it was with a single woman and we hadn't been able to find anyone who could come with us and so Harlan volunteered! It was awesome. We went and the lady dropped us, but she did ask Harlan to say the closing prayer and he did awesome at it.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference so I was able to talk to Elder Christensen and a few other people from the Olathe Zone, also Zone conference was awesome. They showed us some of the new Meet the Mormon videos that the church has come out with. They are basically extensions to the full length film. I don't think they are out yet but if you go to a visitors center you can watch them, they are super cool. I really liked the Horseman.

Thursday we got a Mini Missionary. So a 16 year old Priest from the Far West Stake came and lived with us for 4 days, his name is Colton. He is awesome he basically just hung out with us and just followed us around. We had him hand out a few Book of Mormons. He left on Sunday.

(Colton is the one in the background)

Friday we helped a single sister in the ward but up an electric fence around one of her pastures so that her horses can't get out. That was cool, only Elder Staheli got some poisonous plants on his arms and I got Chigger bites all over my legs even though I wore bug spray and jeans. They are so much worse than mosquitos.

Saturday we were at the church finishing up weekly planning and some guys were there cleaning the church carpets. Then all of the sudden one of the guys comes in and says "hey there's some guy out here that would like to talk to you" so we were like "sweet" and this guy comes in and has no shoes on and says he has been on a journey and would like to talk about it. So we start talking and it becomes clear that he needs some medical help and is not completely there. It was a crazy experience, he was talking about tulips everywhere that drug people and he ditched his wallet because they track our money and some very specific things about the law of chastity. It was an experience that I will not  forget soon. It was also awesome because we had Colton with us.  Harlan also had his baptismal interview and he passed! I have also been very humbled because Harlan asked me if I would be the one to baptize him. So that will be awesome.

But this week has been way fun, this transfer has flown by so quickly and now it's already half way through August.  I am very thankful for all the support that you guys give me. Keep it up! Make it a great week.

Elder Jensen

Week 31

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli
 
This week has been full of miracles and has been fun and has kinda thrown us out of our regular schedule. Monday we had an awesome lesson with Jeffery. We had a 2 week standing appointment with him that actually held! He was away at school and we felt like we needed to leave him with him a reading assignment from the gospel of John and he did it. He has been struggling with some stuff and found some pretty awesome scriptures in John that helped him. He said he has prayed about it and that he feels like this is the path he should take. So we are super excited to work with him hopefully things work out well.

Tuesday we were studying in our service clothes because we go do service on Tuesdays at an assisted living place. And we hear this knock on the door and it is a member of the ward that has been in the process of moving out of our ward into the Leavenworth 1st ward. So he asked us if we had the 1st ward Elders phone number so that they could help him move. So we offered to help and he accepted. So that was a good blessing, we just happened to be free and wearing service clothes at the specific time that he needed help moving stuff.

Wednesday we did service for the Freemans. We helped reclaim their fence which was completely taken over by trees and vines. It was cool and fun. I saw most definitely the biggest spider this side of the Missouri River. I am proud to say I actually somewhat held my composure as I ran away. Later that day we had a lesson with Harlan at the Freeman's house. He is still doing amazing and is on track for the 20th of August. Harlan offered to help Bro. Freeman and so we all came on Thursday morning and did the same thing. Although apparently the mosquitoes are a lot worse at 8:00 than at 10:00 because the first day I got like one bite. The next day I had over 30 on my legs. So that will be fun... But Harlan really enjoyed it and we got some good work done.

Friday we had dinner with the Hall family and they said that they had some extra bikes that they could loan us if we needed. We found a bike in our apartment building and we were pretty sure it was a missionary bike, but we only had one so we couldn't ever use it. So when the Halls offered one we took the offer and I now feel like I have accomplished the full missionary look. Short sleeve white shirt with a a shoulder bag strapped to my waist, a sweet bike helmet that has a visor on it, and my pants tucked into my sock. It was basically the best day of my life.  That really was such a huge blessing though, it makes traveling so much faster and we can visit a lot more people now.

Saturday we helped a member move a ton of stuff into a tiny storage unit, which was interesting. But we actually fit it all in there... Somehow. I wish I had a picture because it was a lot of stuff and we
had to use all of our engineering and Tetris skills to get it in there.

This week has been fun and has seemed to flown by. Thank you for all the support, you guys are the best!


Elder Jensen

Week 30

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli
 
This week has gone by super fast.  Monday was cool. We had been asked if we could help move a piano into a house earlier in the day, but we couldn't because we had other things scheduled and we just weren't able to do it. Well later that night we were coming home from dinner and we drove past their house. I had the feeling that we should stop by. So we parked the car and walked to their house and when we got there they were unloading a trailer with big cabinets. So we helped them with that and turns out that they weren't actually able to move the piano earlier and were just about to leave to pick it up. So it was perfect timing. We helped them pick up a piano, an engine and a really heavy dresser.

Wednesday we helped the Barnett family stain their deck, which is a  really big deck. We worked for about 4 hours and still weren't finished so we went back Thursday morning and helped again. It is nice to have a change in your schedule.

Then Thursday afternoon we went on exchanges so I went up to Parkville with Elder Reber. Elder Reber is a brand new missionary who was in charge of his area for the first time so it was kinda fun. We tried all day but it seemed like no one was answering the door, then as we were walking up to this one house I saw the blinds move and I just kinda laughed to myself, because it's usually little kids that do that and I thinks it's funny. But as we walk up to the door these three teenage girls opened the door and greeted us before we got to it. It was funny, it seemed like they were more interested in Elder Reber than the message he had to share. But we did get to sit down with them and we had a short but powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon, it was cool.

On Sunday two investigators came to church which was Awesome! Then we had a lesson with Harlan later that night and he is still doing good with the lessons and is starting to share what he has learned at work. He is super cool.

Those were most of the highlights this week. Thank you all for the support. You guys are awesome.

Elder Jensen

I found Idaho St.

Week 29

Area: Leavenworth, KS
Companion: Elder Staheli

This week has been pretty awesome. We had a couple lessons with Herb who is 87 and awesome. He loves to talk and so it is always interesting to go to his house and see what kind of stories we get. He is really caring though and he tries to help his community. There is a woman who has become his friend who had her son taken away because of her living conditions. So we offered service and we went over and helped her clean her house, which still needs a lot of help. But we got quite a bit done, then the next day we went back because Herb got a carpet cleaner company to come for free. So we had to wake up at 5 am to get all that we needed to get done. We had to take almost everything out of the house and put it outside. It was an interesting experience but it was really nice to help her out.

We also had a family invite Harlan to come have dinner with them at the same time we were coming over. They were awesome and we had a super good lesson afterwards and he really wants to be baptized. We told him that he could be ready by Aug 20. So he will be preparing for that, he is super cool.

We also helped the Leavenworth 1st Ward Elders help a family move in their ward. We showed up, they turned off the TV, then they gave us trash bags and we literally one armed cleared off the shelves and dumped into the bags. Not very organized but pretty quick. We also helped a member in our ward. His house was over taken by mice and he had to move out - so that was fun.

This week has been fun. I am thankful for the success that we have been seeing. Thank you so much for all the support you guys have given me, it is really awesome to hear form you - thanks!

Elder Jensen