Week 21!

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
 

This week has been amazing! So many times we were just in the right

places at the right times.

We started out this week with finding a part member family who we will
start teaching. And we officially started teaching another PMF, so add
the Giles and we are teaching 3 PMFs! We are super excited.
We had a couple lessons with Ceasar who hasn't been progressing lately
but this last week or so he has kind of gotten his life moving again.
He was to the point of absolutely no money and he literally didn't
leave his apartment or talk to anyone but us, but he came to church
this week! And it was awesome and he liked it! We have become his
really good friends and he definitely needs the support of the church.

We have been reading a talk with members from Elder Ballard called
"Write down a date" and challenging members to write down a date in
which they will find someone ready to receive the gospel. And this
week it happened. The Guernsey family has been praying for someone
before the first Sunday in June. Sister Guernsey had a friend over
who said that she was looking for a church to go to and she had just
started reading the bible for the first time. And Sister Guernsey,
like a boss, told her about the church and asked if we could come
over! So we went and found her and had an amazing first lesson with
her. She is so prepared and she would have been at church but she had
a hit and run on her car in the middle of the night so she had to take
care of that, Thanks Satan. But it's alright because she is still
going strong.

We were walking down the street and heard "good morning Elders!" Which
is either a really good thing or a really bad thing. But this guy
called us over and turns out he used to be a member and went on a mission
to Japan, Spanish speaking! That would be crazy. But he talked with us
for a while and it was so spiritual he inspired us and pleaded that we
continue faithfully and finish our missions. Then he showed us his 6
snakes, one of which is going to be like 12 ft long. It was super cool.

We helped Leroy again with his house.  We tore apart his kitchen
completely and it was really fun we got to punch through walls. And
tear up the carpet. It was awesome as well because his parents were
there and they had a Irish Wolf Hound that was huge! It  was at least
6ft on its hind legs and it was just big and fun to play with.

OH we also went up to Liberty yesterday with the Giles and a couple

members and it was awesome. The Liberty Jail is super spiritual and I

learned a lot. I also got to see Elder Hansen there. But it was like 5 hours

of church followed by like 6 hours in the car and like 1 hour for the Jail.

But it was worth it!

  

 

 

 

 

Anyway this week has been full of miracles and it was fun to watch how
the Lord works with people and prepares them. Thank you for all the
support that you guys give me. It really keeps me going - thank you!

Weekly Quote: Hey no growling during prayer. - Brother Patton - he
was totally serious.

Elder Jensen

Week 20

Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
 
This week has been awesome! On Tuesday we helped an investigator fix up his house. He is renting from his grandparents and in exchange for rent money he is fixing up the house so they can actually rent it out. The problem is that he doesn't want to fix it because then they will kick him out so that someone can move in. So Elder Christensen and I were working hard trying to get stuff done and he just sat down after a while and was like "dang it we got a lot done." So its interesting to work for someone who is actively trying not to be effective.

We had dinner with the Giles again and they are still doing awesome - no set dates yet but wedding bells are in the air!

Thursday we went to help the Hannons with their garden. They were going to have me use a little dinky tiller that hooks on to the end of a weed whacker. But when we got there the neighbor who they were going to borrow it from had left it locked in his garage. So us and the sisters used little shovel trowel things and hand tilled the garden... so that took a while but it was fun and was pretty cool that day so it wasn't bad.

We had dinner with the Stolls on Friday which was awesome. They are old enough that they are great great grandparents and when we go over for dinner a couple of their children come over who are already grand or great- grandparents. And its awesome Brother Stoll who is almost 89 probably has the most class I have ever seen. Elder Christensen and I were talking about how old we wanted to be and I said that if I had hair like brother Stolls I would be ok living that long.

This is Brother Stoll. This part of their house the ceiling is only maybe 6ft 4in. So ceiling fans here are fun for me.

We helped Leroy this week - he is the guy we helped redo all of his pluming underneath his house and who we were supposed to borrow the weed whacker/ tiller thing from. We helped him with these really big planter boxes. They are about 13ft tall and he is growing grapes along the side and on the top of it. But he doesnt want the birds taking all of his grapes so we had to build U frames around the planter box and then string netting over everything. But we didnt have any ladders that were tall enough so we just had to stand on these 4x4 poles sticking strait up and 2x4s that run along horizontally. So that was working great until at the end no one else was quite tall enough to hang the netting. So I got to do a lot of it which was actually a lot of fun besides the falling. I am glad we were able to help because it was not a one person job.

This week was really good although almost all of our appointments fell through. We were able to just stop in on a couple of people so that was good.

There is this less active family that just moved in about a year ago and the dads name is Michael and the 15 year olds name is Kenneth. It is really weird hearing someone else being called that btw, but we went over and connected really well. But as soon as we started talking about he gospel things got really awkward and you could tell there was some spiritual chastening going on. Then I dont know why but I just started speaking and it was, lets say quite bold, about how their family needs the blessings that come from church. Afterwards I felt kinda bad about it but I think it was what they were supposed to hear.

Weekly Quote: We could talk to them until we are blue in the eyes! - Brother Hannon 

                       (which wouldn't take to long for me)

But that was pretty much my week. Thank you all for the help you guys do for me. Thank you for the packages of socks and ties and bug repellent stuff. The mosquitoes are kinda bad out here. You guys are awesome. LoveYa

Elder Jensen

Don't worry - Elder Christensen just rolled his ankle.

An adorable doggy

 

Week 19!

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen

Answers

Luckily we don't have to memorize the lessons anymore. But we do memorize the First Vision, D&C 4, The mission motto, and the 42 doctrinal points that we teach and a correlating scripture for each of the points.

Elder Christensen's foot is doing a lot better and is for sure not broken - we got it x-rayed and it is getting better.

I don't have any shorts for service,  but they would probably be nice. I just don't know what ones I want - I like my gray ones but they are really torn up - but my black ones would probably be good :)

 

My Week

This week has been really good. The ward has come out with these Sabbath day packets - its like a step by step process of different ways we can make the Sabbath more holy. They are really awesome and they made one for every family in the ward. Out of our 300ish members about 90ish of them are active so there are a ton of these packets left over. So bishop asked us and the sisters to take all the ones remaining and try to deliver them to these less actives and part member families. We have seen and talked to a lot of members of the ward that we never knew before and are starting to teach them now. We have also gotten a couple of new investigators out of it because say the wife is a member but the husband isnt, so we start teaching them the lessons.
 

On Wednesday we helped a family in our ward do some service. We went to the Faith House which is just a house that houses several families that are going through a really hard financial time and need some help getting up on their feet. So that was cool. We got to help make dinner and do a few chores around the house.

It was pretty funny, there is this guy that hangs out at McDonalds almost everyday for the free WiFi. We see him almost everyday because we go there for the free WiFi. Earlier that day we saw this guy walking down the street and Elder Christensen said that we needed to talk to that guy the next time we see him at McDonalds. Well sure enough at the Faith House this guy came walking in and he is living there. So we talked with him and shared the gospel a bit with him and he became a new investigator. It was funny because he recognized us a little bit and then he said "oh yea I see you guys at McDonalds, I remember because your so tall!" We talked for a little bit because he is 6ft 5in so we connected that way and shared stories of hitting our heads on things.
 

So at this dinner we had some amazing homemade chicken noodle soup, but out here they put it on mashed potatoes... which sounds really weird but it is really good. I hadnt eaten a ton that day so I ate like 4 plate fulls and was stuffed. Then we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators and we brought a member with us who we havent ever taken before but he did awesome and after invited us to dinner with his family. And even though we were super full we had to because it was an opportunity to connect with that family and build a missionary - member relationship. So he took us to a mexican restaurant in town. We had no idea what the menu was like so we just ordered what sounded good and what sounded like not very much food. Elder Christensen gets his food and its like two small tacos... I got my food and it was a humongous plate like overflowing with food. I had to eat it all because they were paying. So I prayed real hard and I surprisingly ate it all and then when we went home I legit looked like I was pregnant. I dont think I have eaten that many pounds of food in one sitting in a long time. But Heavenly Fathers got my back! 

One day this week we had like 4 teaching appointments set up and it was going to be awesome. Then all of the members that were going to go with us ended up having to bail. Then we went to the first appointment and she said that she would have to reschedule and I knew that it was gong to be one of those days... and it was ... literally everything we had set up fell through. But it was still a really good day because we found other people to talk to and we actually had several good contacts with a couple potentials.
 

Quote from the week: A Fat guy, a sheriff, a couple rent-a-center guys, and 2 Mormons chasing a dog.
That was a story of how Elder Christensen found one of our investigators - I was in Paola on exchanges so I wasn't part of the story sadly.

Thank you all for the support and the encouragement you give me. It would be a lot harder if I didn't have that. Thank you!
 

Elder Jensen

Our neighbors got a new Subaru and I thought it was a pretty classic name.

Week 18

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen

My Week

This week has been awesome. Monday we stayed in Chanute and did shopping and just kinda hung out and did Chanute things. Tuesday we went on splits with some members of the ward. We went and saw a couple less actives it was fun. So when we went to meet up, Elder Christensen and his partner showed up an hour late so me and a brother from the ward just kinda sat there and talked for an hour. So that was fun.  

We did service for a member on Thursday. We helped him make Jelly and Bread. We made over 100 jars of jelly and it took almost all day. But it was cool because they feed us really good food.

We had a couple really cool member present lessons this week. We took brother Gile who is a less active that is starting to come back to church and he really helped our investigator and shared his testimony. It was awesome.

This week was really good but not much to report on. We did missionary things and talked to a bunch of people and preached the gospel.

So I think I am going to start writing a weekly quote because some funny stuff happens. So this weeks Quote: I'd probably be an egg - Elder Jensen

 

Unfortunately I don't really have any pictures from last week. Although we were on exchanges and there is a town called Osowatamie and it is call OZ for short and I am in Kansas...
 

Thank you so much for the support that you guys give me. It is amazing when I get to read about home. Thanks for all the help.

Elder Jensen

 

Mother's Day Skype

 

Week 17

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen

Answers

- Elder Christensen has been out for just one more transfer than me. So he is just 6 weeks older - that definitely makes some interesting times.
-So far I have only spoken once in church but I am sure many more will come...

My Week
This week has been really awesome. We have worked on getting a lot of member present lessons and have definitely seen a lot of success from that. We have found several new investigators this week. One we found on exchanges - I was with Elder Roberts and then later in the day we went on splits with some guys in the ward. Elder Christensen knocked on her door not knowing that she was already a new investigator, so they had a good chat and then we had a lesson with her yesterday. It is nice because in small towns everyone seems to be connected in some way. So the member knew her and her daughters, and then we learned that her son and Nathan(recent convert) are like best friends so that helps out alot.

The Giles are still doing amazing, they are so incredibly prepared. Its awesome,  the only thing standing in the way of baptism now is them being married. So once that is figured out then we will have 3 baptisms on the way!! It was funny the two girls (6 & 10) were literally on their knees asking their mom if they could be baptized. Then when we went over for dinner the oldest said "I read the pamphlet about the temple you gave me and I've decided that I am going to be married in the temple." So they are coming along nicely. I told them that I have to be at their baptism so they better get a move on.

We were cutting it pretty close on our miles for the month so the last couple of days we had to break out our Shoebarus and Lambrafeeties. We walked about 10 miles one of the days so that was fun.

We did service for the guy that we were under his house for a full day again. Only this time we helped him build a planter box for his garden and it is really tall because he has grapes that are basically going to envelop it all. So at one point I was standing on the tip of a 4x4 with one foot, about 9 feet in the air, holding a drill and screwing some wood together. So I think I am qualified to be a certifiable Ninja now.

Its kinda weird because we feel really good about this week and a lot got done but there isnt much to write about, like "We talked to a lot of people about the gospel..." So I am trying to work hard but there isnt always a whole lot to report.

Thank you so much for everything you guys have done for me. It is always awesome to hear from you. Make it a great week!

20 ft tall George Washington Totem Pole