Letter 79 Christmas

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are all having a good Christmas! We are doing the typical missionary thing playing basketball because it’s p day. This week was a lot of fun! I love my new area a ton. The ward has a ton of youth and it’s just like a Utah ward. The members are super solid and willing to help so it’s great.

One of the members brought one of her friends to church and now her and her family attend. They are really interested in finding out more of what we believe. We taught them the first lesson this week at our ward mission leader's house and it was amazing! It started off a little shaky because Elder Boulette and I teach very differently, but the spirit soon came into the lesson and as we testified of the Book of Mormon it brought a lot of peace. They came to church this Sunday for the 4th time and plan on attending weekly.

Maggie has already read the intro and testimonies and Keney has read a little bit as well. Maggie is very interested and is helping her family come along too. I haven’t had the experience to teach families a lot on my mission and so I am super excited for this one and I really feel that they will be baptized as they continue to keep commitments.

I enjoy everything about this area (even biking, it’s actually kinda fun) and I can’t wait to keep working in it. I’m so grateful for this time of year as well. It took a little bit for it to hit Cali, but you can feel the spirit of Christmas in the air and I love it. I know the Book of Mormon is real and it can bring peace to your life by reading it. I know that Joseph Smith did indeed translate the Book with Gods help and I’m so grateful that God has prepared this tool the Book of Mormon in our lives to help us find truth and feel peace. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Elder Jensen
Pictures: Christmas zone conference and Christmas morning. Sorry for the bad photo quality.

Letter 78 Transfers

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a fun week but I got some news this Saturday. I am being transferred To Heritage in La verne. My new companions name is Elder Boulette and he is a really fun guy. I didn’t expect to leave so I was really sad but I feel really excited to work here in heritage at the same time. It seems like a great place! 

I didn’t have a lot of time in Armenian work so I hope I get to go back before the end of my mission. However, I am really excited to work in heritage. I just feel like this is where I’m supposed to be and I feel super ready to work. And bike. I stayed away for 18 months but now it is time to get that brand new bike out and get to work. I have never been so excited to bike.

I’m on the opposite side of the mission but I’m just really excited in general. They took out the two Armenian companionships so Elder Ebert and Elder Hansen will be trio training. Elder Boulette just finished training so it will be fun to greenie break again. Overall I’m just really excited to get things going again. That’s all for this week! Have a good week!

Letter 77 Light the World

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a pretty typical week and nothing new has really happened. Transfers are next week because this is a 5 week transfer so we will see what happens. We spent our time pretty balanced this week between finding and studies and teaching and service so it was pretty good. We have decided we need to have more faith and when we contact people we need to expect them to accept our message. 

Our investigators aren’t progressing really well right now and we are hoping to find someone who is prepared and wants to be baptized. I know they are out there and so we are just going to keep talking to as many people as possible to find them. The light the world program has been lots of fun. I think service has a lot more impact  around this season so don’t waste the opportunity! That was pretty much it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and a good week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 76 Birthday

Hey Everyone!

It was a fun week for us. We’ve been doing lots of finding and service for the light the world theme and it has been going great so far I have really enjoyed it. We also are easing into Facebook right now so don’t be alarmed if you see me on haha. It has been super weird to go through it but I think it will be a great proselyting tool. After all, follow up is one of the hardest things I feel like with missionary work. We have so many people to contact and call and text in a day and we often don’t remember and so I think FB messaging will make it a lot easier. I’m excited to start!

Elder Stucki and I also celebrated our birthday together again this year and we went all out. It was our birthday and so no excuses, we had to eat a bunch of unhealthy food. It was awesome but I felt terrible after. We ate a ton of donuts in the morning and then we weren’t even that hungry for lunch but we got a bunch of Little Caesar's extra most bestest pizza with the crazy crust because we said we had to. 

For those of you who don’t know it’s a pizza with extra pepperoni and cheese and then they smothered a ton of the stuff that they put on crazy bread normally on it. By this point I was utterly disgusted with myself but we had a deal and so for dinner we went to red Robbin. What a party. Bottomless fries is just what I need when I’m not even hungry but we ate as much as we could and it was worth it. Fast Sunday was the next day too and so I was actually super prepared. Anyway, the church is true have a great week!

Letter 75 Light the World

Hey everyone!

It’s been a great week this week. I already mentioned the things that happened earlier like zone conference and thanksgiving so I won’t go into those. However, we did have some cool things happen these last couple days. On Friday we got to go to the temple with the sisters and their recent convert Michelle to do baptisms. Michelle asked Elder Hansen to be baptized for her father and it was a super cool experience. Another thing I learned is how needed Melchizedek priesthood holders are in the church. They needed help in the temple and put us right to work and it was super cool. 

However, it shows just how much the church is lacking willing priesthood holders to serve. With the new initiative to light the world a second time coming up. I would encourage you all to serve everyone around you but not only that. It is important that we express our gratitude for access to the priesthood by living worthy at all times and keeping Gods commandments. I am so grateful for the gift of the priesthood I have been given to bless the lives of others. It has been an amazing experience for me to be able to serve in the church and bless the loves of others. I would encourage all of you this Christmas season to go the extra mile in your service, whether you are a priesthood holder or not. The church needs willing hands to help and there are many others around us who need this help. We have a great responsibility as members of this church to fulfill our church callings and serve those around us. 

Also last Saturday I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Thornton came to my area with me and we had so much fun contacting people. He just came from Puerto Rico after the hurricane and had a lot of new ideas. We talked to so many people that day and served many people around us and it felt so good. Our numbers weren’t very high at all this week, but I felt like a true servant and representative of Jesus Christ. I have learned so much from my mission so far and have come to realize what a blessing  it has been to be here serving in California. There are so many people here who need help and so many people to talk to. All of these people have so many needs that only the gospel can meet. It will take every ounce of consecration we can muster if we want to successfully help those around us. 

I am so grateful for this church and this gospel and the many blessings of happiness it has brought to my life. I know it is true. I know without a doubt in my mind that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and the Jesus Christ is the messiah and has redeemed us from this fallen state we live in. I am so grateful for him and because of this I want to do everything I can to serve him. I invite you all to do so as well. Have a great week lighting the world and serving!

Pics: Zone pics and temple 

Letter 74 Thankgiving

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a pretty regular week here just a little bit longer. Happy Thanksgiving! Because it’s been a 10 day week I can’t remember anything that happened but just know that it’s been lots of fun and it’s flying by super fast!

We have done lots of finding this week but we have had a lot of fun doing it. Oh just remembered. We had zone Conference the other day and big news. Our mission will be opening Facebook next week so if you see me on my Facebook account don’t be alarmed.

It will be an adventure for sure and I’m kinda nervous. Just when I start to get good at something the mission always springs up something new haha. Well talk to you all Monday, have a good thanksgiving!

Elder Jensen

Letter 73 Miracles

Hey Everyone! 

This was a pretty good week! To start, we met a lady named Margarit who was a former in our area Book. We had tried to go by before but she was never there because her husband was in the hospital. Well, we went back and taught her and she doesn’t speak any English. We were able to teach the restoration clearly and she understood it well and now she is on date for December 16th!  

It was an awesome miracle. It is difficult to get her to church though and we didn’t have anyone at church this Sunday, but hopefully we can get around that. She has a lot of potential and is so willing to learn. She was originally found because her husband had a dream about the missionaries coming and teaching them but then got sick and passed away. We are hoping that she is willing to see that this is true. 

We are still working with Claudina as well and although she won't set a date with us, she is willing to take steps towards baptism and committed to give up coffee and tea, which is awesome. Other than that we have just been finding a ton, trying to knock on a lot of doors and street contact a lot of people. 

That's about if for this week! I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and if you will all take the time to read the Book of Mormon daily you will have peace in your life and know that it is true as well. Have a great week everyone! 

Letter 72 LA Zoo

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I don’t have a ton of time to email this week because we went to the zoo! 

This week we have been just doing a lot of finding and looking for new solid people to teach. That’s pretty much it.

Also, I finished the Book of Mormon in Armenian! What an achievement! It was a long read so I was pretty happy. The Book of Mormon is amazing and it’s taught me so many wonderful principles about how I should live my life. I hope you all take the time to study it daily, it will not let you down. You will see your life improve as you read the Book of Mormon daily and you will be able to conquer every trial. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Pictures: At the Los Angeles Zoo. We had a good time with all the animal signs!

Letter 71

Hey Everyone!

I literally can’t remember anything that happened this week so it’s probably gonna be a pretty short one today. President and Sister Wells came to church with us so that was cool. Today we had our district activity of pumpkin carving so that was pretty great as well. I will attach a couple of photos. That’s pretty much all that’s happened. We did a lot of finding this week but we didn’t really find any solid people. We are still trying to work with Claudina but she missed church so hopefully we can get her there next week. 

Well the church is true I don’t really have much else to say. I have really felt the gift of tongues though since coming back to Glendale. The difference between me in Duarte and me in Glendale is insane. I know that I am definitely being helped and while I can’t say everything I want to or sometimes need to, Heavenly Father has helped me say just enough in the situations that really matter. I know that the gift of tongues is real and that spiritual gifts are real, I challenge you all this week to search for some of your spiritual gifts and then think of ways you can use them to bless others. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 70

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had a great week this week! Ours was great. Lots of finding people to teach but we have found a few good prospects. We are teaching Claudina, a member's mother and we didn’t quite set her on date, but she does understand that the next step in meeting with us is baptism and she wants to keep meeting with us to progress there so that is good. She said she would pray about a date and we said we would too so we are hoping our next lesson with her we will be able to set one.  

This Thursday we had a mission conference with Elder Dyches of the seventy and it was awesome! He has so much power with him and I learned a lot from that meeting. He talked a lot about working with and serving members and I realized that I really am doing the bare minimum and could do so much better at showing love and kindness towards members and just others in general.

We had our Armenian group meet again and it went okay. We are still working out the kinks with getting it started, but so far it has worked out pretty well. Now we just need to get some investigators there! We are working with one Armenian lady named Anoush and she is awesome but hasn’t really progressed since I’ve been here so we will see how it goes. She is reading the Book of Mormon though and likes reading general conference talks and has been to church three times. She hasn’t been recently though. Hopefully we can keep working with her. Anyway, that’s pretty much it for this week! Hope you all have a great week!

Letter 69

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good but it involved lots of planning. On the bright side, we have got the Armenian group moving forward again! Yesterday we were able to go according to plan and have the sacrament in an Armenian meeting and it worked out really well! We are excited to get things moving again and get Armenian work going. 

 

Other than that, things have been going as normal. Tonight we will have to start biking so that will be fun. Zita got baptized this Saturday in Duarte so that was awesome! I wasn’t able to go but I’m super glad she made that step and I bet she is doing awesome! 

 

Well I don’t really have much more to share this week, but I would just encourage everyone to keep praying for everything going on in the world as well as around them. Everyone is going through a struggle in their lives and sometimes we can’t see that. However, I know that prayer really is a powerful thing that can help us come closer to Heavenly Father as well as provide miracles for others in need. If all else fails, we can pray for each other and the miracles will roll forth. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jensen

 

Letter 68

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty great! The other elders that I just joined had two baptisms this Saturday and that went really well! We had a really good time this week and I am super excited to be back! There are tons of people to talk to and I really enjoyed this week with Elder Stucki and Elder Hansen. Yesterday the new Armenian Elder came in and his name is Elder Ebert. We are excited to have him here and start working! 

We got in a car accident Sunday afternoon so that was fun. I told the APs they to have someone else drive but they didn’t listen. It wasn’t my fault at least but it was a hit and run which stinks so we didn’t even get to talk to the other driver. We are having P day today because we had our temple trip. It’s really nice to go to the temple and I encourage you all to do so. I know the temple is a place we can find peace and revelation. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 67

Hey Everyone!  

It's been great week! I got transferred back to Armenian work and I am super pumped! My companion is Elder  Hansen and I am greenie-breaking him so it's gonna be a fun transfer. 

We now have two companionships of Armenian Elders with Elder Stucki training the new one so we will be in a trio for a week. Elder Stucki is now the father of all Armenian Elders. What a guy. I'm super excited to have a pad with only Armenian elders. There is also still a companionship of sisters in the Glendale first area so now there are 3 companionships there. I'm pumped. 

Zita is getting baptized the 14th and the Armenians have 2 baptisms this Sasturday, some of Mosi's friends again, but hey we could always use more Persians too. Anyway, it's been fun already and I'm so glad I'm back. 

I hope you all enjoyed general conference. My favorite talks were Elder Holland's and Andersen's I think they both did a great job and hit home. If you didn't get a chance to watch the conference I would encourage you all to do so. 

Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 66 LA Zoo

Hey Everyone! 

I don't have a ton of time because we spent a lot of our p-day today at the LA zoo with the AP's which was super fun. I will write more later because if I get transferred I will end up having a p-day again Monday. I'm not positive I will be transferred, but President called us and pretty much said I will be transferred... so yeah but he didn't tell me more than that. I guess we will see what happens. 

We taught Zita a lesson yesterday and we were able to resolve a major concern for her and she is so awesome and prepared. I have a ton of pictures from the zoo but I will just share a few. We went there with the new AP as well, who is Elder Sanders my old companion, and we had a really good time. The church is true! Have a great week everyone!

Letter 65 Tesla Coil

September 25, 2017

Man it has been a crazy but great week! Transfers are coming up next week and we will be receiving a ton of missionaries including some from Puerto Rico who are coming from the hurricane over there. There is definitely a lot going on in the world and so many storms and earthquakes we have heard about it's crazy.

This week was a lot of fun for us. We didn't have any meetings and so we had plenty of time to work in our area. We had Zita come to church and she has been progressing really well and we also had Susan come to church. Elder Peterson and I were working with her originally and she wanted to come back again which is amazing! This time it went much better for her. We are having a lot of success right now in the area and things are just overall busy which is really good!

We were in a parade Saturday morning carrying a giant US flag so that was pretty cool. That's about all that happened for this week! These pictures are from us at a recent convert's house. He is an electrician and built a Tesla coil. I wasn't too sure about the whole thing but it was pretty cool. He had us take a butter knife to the Tesla coil and then hold a light bulb and it would light it up. As you can probably tell by the pictures I didn't really trust it but it worked out good.

Anyway, there is a lot of stuff going on in the world right now so remember to pray for those affected by the natural disasters! Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 64

Hey everybody!

We had a great week this week! It has just been a miracle to work with Holly (She goes by Zita now because that is her birth name)! Zita has progressed super well and is now half way through Alma in the Book of Mormon. She is loving everything about the church and we set her on date for the 14th of October!! 

She has been getting some great fellowship and came to church last Sunday and loved it. It is amazing to watch her learn about her family history which has a lot of Mormons in it and she feels like this is where she belongs and we are super excited to be working with her! 

Last night she sent a text to us about what she needs to wear for her baptism so it's totally happening and she is just awesome! She reminds me a lot of Madlena and it is great to have people in the world who are truly searching for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most people aren't interested or have forgotten the importance of it, but all the work is worth it even just if one soul is to find the gospel.

I have a testimony that many people are out searching for he truth and that we have it and can bring it to them. I invite all of you to share the gospel with a friend this week and serve them even if they don't seem interested. Many people don't realize they are looking until after they have found it. Have a great week! Sorry, I will try to get pictures next week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 63: Successful Referral!

September 11, 2017

Hey Everybody!

We definitely had a great miracle this week! It was zone Conference week and so we weren't able to get much done but it was enjoyable to see everybody again and to hear from president. However, we did get a referral this week. Her name was Holly and she requested a Book of Mormon online. I think this is the first time it has happened to me on my mission so I was super excited.

We emailed Holly and set up an appointment for Friday. As we got to know her we realized she has lots of Mormon family and a nephew serving in Uganda on a mission. We taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and she is really interested to find out if this is true.


We emailed her the next day to see if she had read the introduction which was a commitment we left with her. She emailed back and told us that she just finished 2 Nephi and that she would start Jacob tomorrow. She is reading super fast which is amazing! She also accepted a soft baptismal commitment and we are excited for our return appointment on Wednesday! We also had stake Conference this week and we had a 70 come and speak to us.

It was an amazing talk and I was glad I was able to attend. You could just see that his testimony was so strong and that he had such a great love for all of the people there. Developing charity is a really difficult challenge for me and it is one of my life long goals, but it was amazing to see his example.

I hope we can all develop this love that is talked about in Moroni 7 and I challenge you all to study the chapter and apply its teachings first with your family, then with your friends, and then with everybody. As you do so and set goals I know that you will be pleased with your efforts and that you will find happiness. Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 62 Book of Mormon 90 Day Reading Challenge

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good, I'm just trying to remember everything that happened. We have been meeting with Adrian still but it has been a while because we can't get a hold of him. We are hoping we can meet with him again soon.

We didn't have a ton of meetings this week which means we had quite a bit of time in our area which was really good. We were able to find a few new investigators to start working with and we hope to continue to find more. It has been nice to have more time in the area and we have been able to talk to a lot more people because of it which just feels a lot more accomplishing.

Because we had more time we did a service project for a man named Jim which was a lot of fun even though it was like a thousand degrees outside. Since we normally always wear white shirts I have a pretty bad farmer's tan and I was also very white where the collar of the shirt is. Well, after this project I got totally fried just where the collar of the shirt normally goes on the back of my neck and so I had this nice red stripe, right above it my neck is tan and right below it it's totally white. Now I have a neopalitan tan with three colors. It's pretty great.

This week we also started a challenge mission wide to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days I am really excited for it but it sure is hard. If you know me I am a super slow reader and so I spend a lot of my down time on this specific challenge now but I am determined to accomplish it. Well that's pretty much all I've really got for this week. It sure was a fun week though being able to get out and serve and work in our area!

Oh, we also finally got another ward mission leader so that is a huge blessing! Things are definitely  looking up in the Duarte ward and I have learned a ton from working in this area. I'm so grateful I could serve a mission and I never want it to end. I've heard it kinda stinks going home anyways and what better place to learn and to grow than out here serving the lord!

I know that Joseph Smith really was a true prophet of God as well as all the prophets who succeeded him. I am so grateful to be part of the church of Jesus Christ that has been restored to the earth today. I am so grateful for all of the scripture and materials that we have to learn and grow from. Many people sacrificed everything including their lives just so that we could have the scriptures today and read the things that they have learned.

I challenge you all to read from the scriptures a little bit each day and don't take them for granted! Find out if the Book of Mormon is true and find out if the Bible is true again and again. As you study and pray for an answer over and over again, your testimony will grow and you will receive guidance that will bless you throughout your life. I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Letter 61 Goodbye Elder Peterson, Hello Elder Clark!

August 26, 2017

Hey Everyone!

This week was super fun because it was transfer week! Saturday night we got a call for our transfer from our mission president for Elder Peterson. He is going to Hacienda Heights to be a zone leader again. He was pretty pumped because he really didn't want to get transfer trashed but now it looks like he will stay there for his last area.

My new companion is Elder Clark. He is a Spanish missionary who just came from East LA and this is his first time in English work. I'm excited to have him as a companion and so far this week with him has been really fun. It will be nice to contact people in Spanish as well now because my Spanish contacting is trash.

Anyway, this Monday we worked with all the missionaries going home and there were a lot of good
missionaries in this group. It was sad to to see them go. Then Tuesday we took them to the airport and picked up the new missionaries. It was a lot of fun to meet them all!

Also, Monday and Tuesday evening we were able to meet with one of the new investigators that Elder Peterson and I found. His name is Adrian and he is the same age as us. He is super awesome and really wants to change and so we challenged him to be baptized and set his date for September 30th! We will probably pass him off to the YSA but we are still looking into it. We were able to meet with him almost every day this week and his best friend Alissa though and they are planning on coming to church tomorrow after we give them a chapel tour tonight.

It has been awesome to see things picking up here and really cool that he meets with us everyday because that has been really hard to for most people in this area. The Smallwoods also came to church last week and he has already received a calling! We are super excited for how well things are
going.

I know that this gospel is true and that we can be changed by applying the teachings of Jesus Christ. I hope you all have a great week!

Pictures: Goodbye Elder Peterson and my new companion Elder Clark. Sorry the pictures are kinda bad.

Elder Jensen