Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
This week has been awesome. It started off with a great Sunday where we went to church. Matt made it to that and he really liked it. He said that the 2nd and 3rd hour was cool to have extra study.
Then Monday was a lot of fun. We went up to Olathe and got together with the other missionaries in our Zone. My mom somehow organized it so that there was a bakery on the way who made me a birthday cake. That was a super awesome surprise! Thank you for the support I got that day. It really means a lot. I got to hear from a lot of friends and family.
Then Tuesday we met Chris who was in a car accident when he was little and is confined to a wheel chair. But he romps his little scooter all around town and tears up the streets of Chanute and is surprisingly good at rhymes. We went over to his house and talked with him about church and about the Book of Mormon. It sounds like he just kinda wants us to come over and study with him.
Wednesday we went up to Paola for district meeting, which takes about 3 hours to drive there and back. Then we came back and proselyted for a couple hours. Then we had dinner with Matt and talked about the gospel and stuff. He is still on track for baptism this next Sunday.
Thursday we went to dinner with a member who took us to this little Chinese buffet in Chanute. Right as we got there, there was a super heavy rain storm that lasted a little while. So we just kinda took shelter from the storm in this little shop until the rain stopped. But the problem is that it didn't stop and we were going on splits with the member and another member who was going to meet us at the restaurant. Well I was going with the member who just met us there, so when he showed up I sprinted to his truck and was completely soaked by the time I got in. I looked at Elder Christensen through the window and they just stayed there, dry until it stopped raining. So I bet that was an interesting sight at the end of the night - 2 Elders - one is completely dry and the other looks like he just got out of the swimming pool.
Friday we went over to the Bishop's house and had a correlation meeting and helped him with some yard work around the house. Then we drove back to Chanute and pretty much just tried potentials and
knocked on doors.
Saturday was a lot of the same as Friday, although we were walking down the street and there was this guy sitting on his porch so we stopped to talk with him. He is pretty devout in his own religion but he really liked the Joseph Smith story and it sounds like he already has a great relationship with Hevenly Father and is able to recognize the answers he gives him. So he asked us to come back and to teach him some more! It hopefully will be really awesome.
Sunday was stake conference and it was all about temples and family history and it was really awesome! Especially for Matt because it answered a lot of his questions about the temple and now he really wants to go. The Womelsdorfs finally came back as well. They were investigators that were on fire and then suddenly dropped off the map, but it sounds like they are legitimately crazy busy and it's been really hard to fit into their schedule. But they came to church and they really liked conference as well.
Thank you for all the support this week and thank you for making it a great birthday. You guys are all great!
Elder Jensen
Monday, June 27, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
Week 24
Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
Hello and Happy Father's Day! Thank you for all those who have been a father role for me and thank you dad for being the best ever!
This week has definitely been interesting. Monday we went up to Olathe and played some awesome sports up there. Then we came back and had a good lesson with a less active couple who we are now going to have a Book of Mormon study with every Saturday!
On Tuesday we went up to Lenexa and had Zone conference and had Elder Hamula from the 70 come and speak to us. It was like 5 hours long but it was super cool and we got into some deep doctrine a little bit so that was really awesome. I learned a lot though about how to change yourself. He said your outward behavior changes your inward behavior. So if you don't like tracting but you want to change, do what people who like tracting do. They go tracting. So that has been
some food for thought this week.
Wednesday we found a couple new investigators one of which we had met her brother in law and we were trying to find him but Malory opened the door instead. She just graduated high school and she was interested to learn more about the message. So we had the first lesson with her and it went really well and she said she would get baptized on July
16th. Then we went on splits with a couple of ward members. I went with brother Fawson which is our ward mission leader. It's always fun to go with him because he totally looks like he could be my dad. So we have been asked that a couple of times when we go out together. But we were able to have a lesson with Nathan again and he is still doing really
well.
Thursday we had another lesson with Malory and we brought a young woman from the ward to help us teach and it was awesome, she had read from the Book of Mormon and she liked the Plan of Salvation and she still wanted to get baptized. We also had a lesson with Matt who is on date for July 2nd and we taught him the word of wisdom. He said that he could do it. Then at the end of the lesson he was like "well better start now" and he walked to the door and took his chew and chucked it. Then he wiped his hands off and said "it s not a physical metaphor, it just gets stuck to your hands" so we have been saying that all week.
Then on Friday we had to drive up to Paola for Zone training which was really good. Then we drove back and felt like we needed to visit an active family who is really struggling with some health stuff. So we did and shared a message with them and later they told us that is what they needed so that was cool.
Saturday we did service setting up a jelly selling stand for some members who make some cray Jelly. Then we helped Leroy again with his garden box. We hung bird netting so that the birds won't eat their grapes. Two problems though. 1. There was a birds nest that already had baby birds in it. 2. The netting and the birds were about 15ft high. Leroy said "dang that's way up there - how are we going to do that." Cut to me like 10ft up standing with only one leg on a pole with grilling tongs and a spatula moving this birds nest with three tiny ugly birds in it, while being attacked by ants because the nest was full of them apparently. So that was fun.
So I forgot to tell part of the story with Malory I think. We asked her to talk to her parents about all of this. 1. To see if they were interested 2. To make sure that they are ok with her doing this. So she talked to her parents and they were not very supportive and they don't want her to take the lessons or be baptized so that really stinks :(
And the heat is crazy imagine green canyon right as you walk in. All the humidity and it's like 100 degrees but the heat index was about 115 this week - it's crazy. And humidity just makes you sweat and it's super gross. From the apartment to the car you are already sweating, and you actually sweat in the shower it's really weird.
Thank you so much for everything you guys have done for me. It has been very humbling. My birthday is going to be fun. Thank you - you are the best!
Elder Jensen
Companion: Elder Christensen
Hello and Happy Father's Day! Thank you for all those who have been a father role for me and thank you dad for being the best ever!
This week has definitely been interesting. Monday we went up to Olathe and played some awesome sports up there. Then we came back and had a good lesson with a less active couple who we are now going to have a Book of Mormon study with every Saturday!
On Tuesday we went up to Lenexa and had Zone conference and had Elder Hamula from the 70 come and speak to us. It was like 5 hours long but it was super cool and we got into some deep doctrine a little bit so that was really awesome. I learned a lot though about how to change yourself. He said your outward behavior changes your inward behavior. So if you don't like tracting but you want to change, do what people who like tracting do. They go tracting. So that has been
some food for thought this week.
Wednesday we found a couple new investigators one of which we had met her brother in law and we were trying to find him but Malory opened the door instead. She just graduated high school and she was interested to learn more about the message. So we had the first lesson with her and it went really well and she said she would get baptized on July
16th. Then we went on splits with a couple of ward members. I went with brother Fawson which is our ward mission leader. It's always fun to go with him because he totally looks like he could be my dad. So we have been asked that a couple of times when we go out together. But we were able to have a lesson with Nathan again and he is still doing really
well.
Thursday we had another lesson with Malory and we brought a young woman from the ward to help us teach and it was awesome, she had read from the Book of Mormon and she liked the Plan of Salvation and she still wanted to get baptized. We also had a lesson with Matt who is on date for July 2nd and we taught him the word of wisdom. He said that he could do it. Then at the end of the lesson he was like "well better start now" and he walked to the door and took his chew and chucked it. Then he wiped his hands off and said "it s not a physical metaphor, it just gets stuck to your hands" so we have been saying that all week.
Then on Friday we had to drive up to Paola for Zone training which was really good. Then we drove back and felt like we needed to visit an active family who is really struggling with some health stuff. So we did and shared a message with them and later they told us that is what they needed so that was cool.
Saturday we did service setting up a jelly selling stand for some members who make some cray Jelly. Then we helped Leroy again with his garden box. We hung bird netting so that the birds won't eat their grapes. Two problems though. 1. There was a birds nest that already had baby birds in it. 2. The netting and the birds were about 15ft high. Leroy said "dang that's way up there - how are we going to do that." Cut to me like 10ft up standing with only one leg on a pole with grilling tongs and a spatula moving this birds nest with three tiny ugly birds in it, while being attacked by ants because the nest was full of them apparently. So that was fun.
So I forgot to tell part of the story with Malory I think. We asked her to talk to her parents about all of this. 1. To see if they were interested 2. To make sure that they are ok with her doing this. So she talked to her parents and they were not very supportive and they don't want her to take the lessons or be baptized so that really stinks :(
And the heat is crazy imagine green canyon right as you walk in. All the humidity and it's like 100 degrees but the heat index was about 115 this week - it's crazy. And humidity just makes you sweat and it's super gross. From the apartment to the car you are already sweating, and you actually sweat in the shower it's really weird.
Thank you so much for everything you guys have done for me. It has been very humbling. My birthday is going to be fun. Thank you - you are the best!
Elder Jensen
Monday, June 13, 2016
Week 23
Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
This week has been crazy and awesome!
I went on exchanges up to Paola on Tuesday and when I came back we had
an investigator on date for baptism on July 2nd which is amazing. We
have been working with him for a while and something happened and he
is super solid now! We are really excited.
Then we went and helped a member in the ward with their huge garden.
We were going to borrow their neighbors tiller and they were gone
so we hand tilled/ weeded the whole thing which was fun.
On Tuesday we also had a lesson set up and we were going to meet in a
park. A member was going to meet us there and join us for a lesson.
Well the lesson fell through but the member while she was waiting
there started talking to this guy in the park. It turns out that he was
kinda raised LDS but has since fallen away pretty hard. So we had a
good heart to heart with him and he really wanted to change and agreed
to be baptized. But he doesn't have a car or a phone so the only way
we can get to him is hopefully catching him at the park again although
we haven't seen him since then :(
Then later that day we had dinner by ourselves but we had maybe 20
minutes before we were going to start so we decided to head over to a
former investigator that we had stopped teaching for reasons. And he
was painting his house so we asked if we could help. He said no but he
really didn't want to cook dinner. Cut to us alone in his house
cooking food and chefing it up and we had dinner with him. That was a
little weird but we had a good talk with him.
Thursday we had another lesson with an investigator who plays Semi-Pro
football in Joplin and put him on date for July 9. He is awesome but we
will probably have to push back his date because he lives with his
fiancé, but it sounds like she is interested as well.
We also had a lesson with an investigator we met on Tuesday and she is
super interested and wants to learn more and accepted to be baptized
on July 9th. Although she may need to be pushed back, she works a crazy
work schedule and it will be hard to teach her every thing she needs
to know in time. But she is awesome and they both will still keep
progressing.
Saturday we drove out to Yates Center which is like 45 min away and
helped the Bishops Mom sand her porch and repaint it. So that was fun.
Service is awesome.
We had a lesson with Nathan who was baptized about two months ago and
he is still doing awesome. He is a usual 16 year old kid but he
definitely knows that the church is true and it's cool.
This has been an awesome couple of weeks. I am so grateful for the
chance to serve a mission and to see how the church blesses others and
I have learned so much about the church. We figured it out, with the
amount of studying and meetings we go to and just time talking about
the gospel, we get about 60 years of church experience in 2 years!
That's crazy but awesome.
Thank you for all the support that you guys have given me. It's always
awesome to hear from you :)
Elder Jensen
Companion: Elder Christensen
This week has been crazy and awesome!
I went on exchanges up to Paola on Tuesday and when I came back we had
an investigator on date for baptism on July 2nd which is amazing. We
have been working with him for a while and something happened and he
is super solid now! We are really excited.
Then we went and helped a member in the ward with their huge garden.
We were going to borrow their neighbors tiller and they were gone
so we hand tilled/ weeded the whole thing which was fun.
On Tuesday we also had a lesson set up and we were going to meet in a
park. A member was going to meet us there and join us for a lesson.
Well the lesson fell through but the member while she was waiting
there started talking to this guy in the park. It turns out that he was
kinda raised LDS but has since fallen away pretty hard. So we had a
good heart to heart with him and he really wanted to change and agreed
to be baptized. But he doesn't have a car or a phone so the only way
we can get to him is hopefully catching him at the park again although
we haven't seen him since then :(
Then later that day we had dinner by ourselves but we had maybe 20
minutes before we were going to start so we decided to head over to a
former investigator that we had stopped teaching for reasons. And he
was painting his house so we asked if we could help. He said no but he
really didn't want to cook dinner. Cut to us alone in his house
cooking food and chefing it up and we had dinner with him. That was a
little weird but we had a good talk with him.
Thursday we had another lesson with an investigator who plays Semi-Pro
football in Joplin and put him on date for July 9. He is awesome but we
will probably have to push back his date because he lives with his
fiancé, but it sounds like she is interested as well.
We also had a lesson with an investigator we met on Tuesday and she is
super interested and wants to learn more and accepted to be baptized
on July 9th. Although she may need to be pushed back, she works a crazy
work schedule and it will be hard to teach her every thing she needs
to know in time. But she is awesome and they both will still keep
progressing.
Saturday we drove out to Yates Center which is like 45 min away and
helped the Bishops Mom sand her porch and repaint it. So that was fun.
Service is awesome.
We had a lesson with Nathan who was baptized about two months ago and
he is still doing awesome. He is a usual 16 year old kid but he
definitely knows that the church is true and it's cool.
This has been an awesome couple of weeks. I am so grateful for the
chance to serve a mission and to see how the church blesses others and
I have learned so much about the church. We figured it out, with the
amount of studying and meetings we go to and just time talking about
the gospel, we get about 60 years of church experience in 2 years!
That's crazy but awesome.
Thank you for all the support that you guys have given me. It's always
awesome to hear from you :)
Elder Jensen
Monday, June 6, 2016
5 Months!
Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Christensen
This week has been really good! And today I hit my 5 month mark. Its
crazy to think that I have been out for that long already.
Well transfers were this week and I am staying in Chanute with Elder
Christensen. I'm going for 6 months in Chanute! That sounds like such
a long time but it's almost over already.
On Monday we went up to Olathe for P-day. Then we drove back and had a
lesson with Ceaser which went pretty well. He has finally started
to pray and so we are building from that. We went over again on
Thursday to help him remodel his house. Which is always an adventure
because he doesn't really how to do it. So we just winged it. We
literally broke up his concrete floor with an iron rod and a maul.
Like men! So that was fun.
Then on Tuesday we went on team ups with the first counselor and saw a
less active part member family who the sisters were working with but
they just kinda stopped communications. But we just stopped by and
they were really welcoming and we are going to see them today and hand
them back to the sisters to teach.
We had a good lesson with a guy we met while he was trying to move a
big book shelf by himself. So we helped him and now we are teaching
him. Service is such an amazing way to meet people.
It was really cool - we were about to drive to Iola and Elder
Christensen said he felt that we needed to stop at the corner of
10th and Forest. So we went there and we just knocked on the doors
on the corner and we found Kate who was interested. We taught a
good first lesson and we have another appointment this week with her.
We also found Victor who is from Guatemala and speaks only a little
English but he loves Jesus and really liked the sound of the church
and some of the things that we practice. So it makes lessons
interesting but we are having fun. I think it's true that the best
teachers are the ones who can teach something so simply that a child
can understand it.
Thank you so much for all the help and support you give me it really
helps. Missionary work is challenging at times but it's totally worth
it.
Elder Jensen
I found a turtle and squad pics. Sister Flaherty got transferred last
week.
Companion: Elder Christensen
This week has been really good! And today I hit my 5 month mark. Its
crazy to think that I have been out for that long already.
Well transfers were this week and I am staying in Chanute with Elder
Christensen. I'm going for 6 months in Chanute! That sounds like such
a long time but it's almost over already.
On Monday we went up to Olathe for P-day. Then we drove back and had a
lesson with Ceaser which went pretty well. He has finally started
to pray and so we are building from that. We went over again on
Thursday to help him remodel his house. Which is always an adventure
because he doesn't really how to do it. So we just winged it. We
literally broke up his concrete floor with an iron rod and a maul.
Like men! So that was fun.
Then on Tuesday we went on team ups with the first counselor and saw a
less active part member family who the sisters were working with but
they just kinda stopped communications. But we just stopped by and
they were really welcoming and we are going to see them today and hand
them back to the sisters to teach.
We had a good lesson with a guy we met while he was trying to move a
big book shelf by himself. So we helped him and now we are teaching
him. Service is such an amazing way to meet people.
It was really cool - we were about to drive to Iola and Elder
Christensen said he felt that we needed to stop at the corner of
10th and Forest. So we went there and we just knocked on the doors
on the corner and we found Kate who was interested. We taught a
good first lesson and we have another appointment this week with her.
We also found Victor who is from Guatemala and speaks only a little
English but he loves Jesus and really liked the sound of the church
and some of the things that we practice. So it makes lessons
interesting but we are having fun. I think it's true that the best
teachers are the ones who can teach something so simply that a child
can understand it.
Thank you so much for all the help and support you give me it really
helps. Missionary work is challenging at times but it's totally worth
it.
Elder Jensen
I found a turtle and squad pics. Sister Flaherty got transferred last
week.
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