Week 16

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Hansen and Elder Christensen

 

Answers to Questions

- We have an interview with President Vest every other transfer - so once every 12 weeks.

- Yes after baptism you reteach all the lessons again.

- Yes it is already hot. A day in the 90s is not uncommon, and then the humidity is coming in not to long.

This week has been really sad but awesome at the same time. Elder Hansen was transferred so I am still in Chanute and my new companion is Elder Christensen. So we did service for the Hannons on Tuesday and then we got the transfer call that night. So Wednesday we packed Elder Hansen up and said goodbye to a lot of people. It was sad but it was good. Giles all cried so that was hard but it was amazing to hear how much we have changed their lives and how much happier they are because we just knocked on their door.
 

Elder Hansen is a great missionary and a great friend. We already have plans for after the mission but he gets home in August and I don't get home till 2018 so that's still weird to think about. It was hard to say goodbye but Elder Christensen, I can tell, is the missionary that is meant to be here in the area right now.

So we drove up to Independence and turns out Elder Hansen was sent to the Liberty Zone which has Liberty Jail in it. Then Elder Christensen drove all the way back. He is from Phoenix Arizona, and is really into sports and is crazy stronger than me so he is nice to have around. He is definitely a goofy kid but he is a lot of fun and very hard working.

 

This week we have seen a lot of miracles and just being in the right place at the right time. Its been really cool to get better at following the little promptings of the spirit and then seeing them work out.

We helped the Hannons again move water out of their basement. We figured it out and I think we ended up bucketing about 1000 Gallons out of their basement and its still really full. We also helped our bishop plant his garden and chop some wood. The wood was really soft so it was hard to split and I ended up breaking one of the bishops mauls so that was fun. It was funny though right after I did it bishop said "Sweet I dont have to chop wood anymore. Lets go get some ice cream". So after that we had ice cream.

 We have had some awesome doorstep lessons and talked to a lot of people. It is very challenging at times but it is totally worth it.

 

Thank you for your emails. Its awesome to hear how life back home still exists. Please keep them coming. Thank you for all the support you have given me - it really helps.
 

Elder Jensen.

Missionaries from the Iola ward before transfers.

 

 

This is literally where our tomtom took us.... Kansas roads

 

Week 15

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Hansen
 

 Answers

- Nathans baptism was awesome! And super spiritual- I will talk about that later

- The Giles have three girls that live with them and one that doesnt.

- The amount of miles we get each month changes but we usually have not much over 2000 and we usually use them all.

- Yes the paper you sent me was the right one. Thanks for sending that.

- I actually haven't been getting any of JWs emails

My Week

So this week we had a couple of appointments. We taught the Giles with Bishop Spencer and his wife and it was awesome. A little while ago I got to go on splits with our stake president and he taught me that when I feel the spirit that was a cue for me to stop and ask 3 questions

1. How are you feeling right now? - Because if you feel it - they probably do too

2. What is giving you these feeling?- The Holy Ghost

3.Why are you feeling this? -  Because its true

I have been trying to do this especially with the Giles and it is awesome. It creates a much more spiritual environment and it also makes your investigator recognize what the spirit is and then how to discern truth. It is really cool when an investigator tells you they are feeling the spirit and they are feeling that way because the gospel and the church is true.

So we did some service for a member in our ward. He had us paint more of his shed and then we planted his garden for him. But before we could do that we needed to till the ground. So Brother Hannon borrowed a "tiller" from his neighbor (this is the same guy we were under his house for a full day) but it wasn't really a tiller it was a weed whacker with a tiller attachment... and it was awful. So like an hour of tilling later we had his garden all broken up and then we planted a ton of vegetables.

Then we went to a funeral for a less active member who had passed away unexpectedly. They had the service in the funeral home and the owner was the one who gave the sermon. He just kinda quoted scripture and it was not spiritual at all and none of the members there felt anything. Now I know why people leave funerals with an emptiness feeling. But highlight - they very loudly played Secrets by One Republic and Take On Me by a ha. It was super funny and we had to try really hard from laughing just because it was so out of place and strange.

Then on Sunday we had Nathans baptism and a ton of people showed up. It was cool and spiritual and really stressful for us just because there was like a million different things that had to be done. Then in sacrament meeting he was confirmed. It was cool though because last minute we were scrambling to get people to be in the circle, and all we had was basically us and the young mens pres. But when we were called to come up and do it like 10 people just stood up. Most were his young men leaders and the bishopric members and a couple others. It was really cool to be able to give someone that gift that we as members of the church take for granted all the time. So Nathans a full member of the church now and he is doing awesome.

 

Elder Jensen - Brother Taylor - Nathan - Elder Hansen

I have really been focusing on asking inspired questions this week and I can definitely see the difference it makes. Lessons just go smoother and the spirit can testify much better when you ask questions. I have also been trying to pray like it says in Preach my Gospel. In chapter 4 it lists out things of how you can make your prayers better. So I am going to ask you guys to look at that section and try it because it has made a big difference in my prayers.

I also wanted to say that I did get my 100 day package and it was crazy cool. My mom was somehow able to get 100 letters from different family and friends. It was so nice. I literally cried from the awesomeness - and also all the love I felt from those letters. Thank you for everyone who was involved with that. It really made my week.

 

 

Message from Mom written on 100 sheets of toilet paper.

Well thanks for all of your support and help. This was an awesome week and I am excited for more weeks like this one.

Elder Jensen

 

 

This is Elder Higgins Death picture he goes home this transfer so we

got a final picture with him and our district.

Week 14

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Hansen 

 

My Week
 

So this week was kinda weird. Monday we had dinner with the Giles, a part member family, which was awesome. They came to church on Sunday and really liked it so that was cool.
 

Then we did a lot of walking trying to focus on finding new investigators, but we didnt find any :( But we did find Jon last week. He is a super cool guy who had cancer in his spine and it paralyzed him. Before that he was part of a church and was in line to be a paster but found faults with the church so he left and felt the call of the spirit so he and his brother literally traveled the country converting people and baptizing them. He went all over the country and even into Mexico. He did this for like 20 years.  So we get talking and he pretty much believes a lot of what we already believe and the whole time he talks we are just like "Same!" So thats way cool to talk with him.

Nathan didn't get baptized this Sunday because we couldn't meet with him this week and we still had a few things to teach him. But now he is all set up for this next Sunday and, for what ever reason, he wants me to give him the Holy Ghost. So that will be new and really nerve racking, but it will be awesome.
 

Just like the past couple of weeks we did a ton of service. We painted a shed, did a lot of work for the bishop cutting wood, helped a member who just bought a new house and is fixing it up, we helped with a big yard sale the young woman's group did and just anywhere we can. I have really developed a love for serving and have seen the difference when you serve. Like even if you want to build your relationship with someone do service with/for them it really changes things.

 



 

For 3 days I was in Gardner Kansas on exchanges so me and Elder Verela walked all over and just talked to as many people as we could.
 

I ruined one of my shirts because we were helping an investigator with his car (he is putting a 5.3 L motor into a 325 i BMW and then is going to Twin turbo it) and I was pulling off a hose which led to the radiator. It still had pressure a fluid in it apparently because when I pulled it off I got shot with he said almost 90 lbs of pressure and covered in refrigerant. So that was awesome especially because apparently refrigerant sucks the oxygen out of the air. So yea that was fun.

Thank you all for everything you do. Its awesome to hear from you. It is really hard but I am loving my mission!
 

Elder Jensen

A frozen pizza that is over 2 lbs and is actually pretty good





 

My zone right now. 



Week 13

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Hansen

 

Answers to Questions

-I am not sure what my favorite thing is to teach. Elder Holland said that any time you rehearse the First Vision the spirit will enter the room and unless you have a hardened heart you cannot deny the feeling of the spirit.
-I am not sure what part of Conference was my favorite. There were a lot of talks about Temples and Humility, so those are things that stuck out to me that I could work on.
-We usually clean our apartment everyday
-I do wash my sheets... every week
- Yes as missionaries we do pay fast offerings but not tithing
- We got a really big storm and it was going to be cool and awesome and then it barely missed us :(

My Week
We had a high councilor over missionary work in the stake come down and he told us to give as much service as we can and to be known as the "free laborers" in Chanute. So that is what we have been focusing on the past couple of weeks. Its really interesting to see people who you can just tell they're not interested react when you ask if we can do any form of service for them. If there is any tension or bad feeling they just seem to go away. I have learned that you cant hate someone you serve and its really hard to hate someone who is serving you.

That said we helped the Pattons who are remodeling a house. We put up sheetrock and insulation and removed a water heater from the attic and a whole bunch of stuff. Then we helped a family who joined the church about a year ago paint this super old shed because he cant and its awesome. It actually gives him missionary opportunities because some of his neighbors asked him " who were those guys painting your barn?" I have also seen that new members are probably the best member missionaries. They just have a sense of vigor in knowing the truth that older members seem to forget.

We knocked on a door that some guy on the street said to try and a lady opened it and was very much not interested. But we offered service and everything changed about how she talked to us. She asked her husband if we could do anything but he said no. We drove around the corner to try someone else and this dude chased us down in his car and said  " hey I changed my mind - can you come tomorrow morning?" and so we agreed and went there in the morning but they didn't answer... it seems pretty sketchy so we might go back if we are feeling adventurous.

We ate at this members house who when they bought it it was just a single story house but he dropped the ceiling and made the attic a second story. The ceiling was about 6 ft 4 in - me and Elder Hansen are about 6 ft 3in so anything like doorways and ceiling fans or lights or anything really attacked us... they always go straight for the head.  And everything in their house, out of their house and just generally about their house was pink and purple. I mean everything - toilets, cabinets, couches.... they had two fridges that were bright pink from like the 50s. It was definitely an experience I will remember.

Then we watched General conference at a couple different members homes and at the church. It was awesome. There is so much more I have to learn.

So me and Elder Hansen like talking about doctrine and he knows a ton more than I do. So if you ever have questions go ahead and ask and we will try to figure it out and answer you next week.

Also we found a deep doctrine junkie in the ward and he gave us the Journal of discourses in a PDF file ...but they are unapproved here so I will have to read them when I get home.

Well that was my week. Thank you for all your support and help. A mission is really hard but its mostly psychological. And totally worth it. Nathan is on date for this Sunday. I will update you next week.
 

Thanks

Elder Jensen

The background is part of the Tulsa mission.