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