Welcome Home Elder Jensen!!!

Rick and I went to the Institute for his Seminary and Institute inservice leaving the kids in charge of cleaning the house. We listened to the broadcast and then had a nice lunch. Jase had called right before the broadcast to say that his first flight was delayed and that he might miss his second flight (which would put him 3 or 4 hours behind). Needless to say we had a difficult time focusing on the broadcast since we knew we would be seeing him soon! After the lunch we hurried home to pick up the kids. We were wondering whether or not we should head to the airport when he called and said that he had barely made it on the second flight and hurriedly borrowed someone's phone to let us know. So we headed out to the airport!

Rick was embarrassing us all by telling everyone to "practice" jumping up and down while chanting "Jase, Jase, finish the race!" (It is an inside joke.) When Jase was in intermediate school and participating in his school triathlon the course went right by the Seminary building where Rick was teaching. So Rick took his entire class outside to cheer him on chanting, "Jase, Jase, win the race!!" Then years later Jase sang " "I Can Go the Distance" for our family Disney CD and in the end of the song Rick had all of the kids chant, "Jase, Jase, win the race!" Anyway, Jared started jumping up and down which popped one of the balloons and so he had to stop. Thus the goofy picture of him holding Josh's scribbled sign with a popped balloon around his neck. He figured that Jase would appreciate his humor. 

It was great to see Jase! We took some pictures and headed home. We still had an hour or so before he was to be released and so for his last assignment Rick had asked him to teach our family. He explained the three most important things that he had learned on his mission. He was really humble and emotional and it was a neat, spiritual experience for our family. We then went to the Stake President's house for his release. Jase had an easy time adjusting to being home. He even had a job interview set up for the day after he arrived home!  It has been wonderful having him home! We are grateful for the dedicated service Jase gave on his mission and have seen numerous blessings as a result. We love you, Jase!!!  

Departing Group!

 Elder Jensen with President and Sister Wells

Letter 103 Last e-mail and Dodger's Game!

Hey Everybody!

This week has been super fun! We have just been working on finding and we had a full day of service this week which was tons of fun. This Saturday we also got to go to the Mormon Dodger Night at Dodger stadium so that was so fun! That was my second time going to a Major League Baseball game and it was awesome. Unfortunately the dodgers lost 5-3 but at least I got a free bobble head and a bunch of pictures. 

This is the last email I will be writing because I head home this Thursday. It’s crazy to think about everything going on. I have grown to love this ward so much and I’m sad to leave it. I’m especially sad to leave my mission. I’ve made so many friends here, but I’m so grateful that I don’t have to leave them all behind. I’m definitely going to keep in contact with all the friends I’ve made out here. 

I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting today and I want to leave a challenge with everybody reading this that I also left with them. The challenge was to pray about serving a mission. I invite each of you to think about it, ponder, and pray over the idea of serving a mission. Not just the youth either. You can all be involved in missionary work and can make the decision to serve a mission later in life as well and so I would encourage you all to actively think about it. It may not be the right step for everyone, the most important thing is that we become what the Lord wants us to become and that is by following his guidance. 

The mission has changed who I am and how I think and I’m so grateful for what it’s taught me. I’m still the same crazy guy I was before, but now I feel like I have a purpose and the Lord has helped me see that. I love you all and I’m so grateful for your support. See you soon!

Pictures: Dodger game!

  

Letter 102 Zone Activity and Awesome Stake Conference!

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty average, lots of finding and street contacting but it was lots of fun!  We have been working hard to find new people for the Sunland area and it has been going pretty good. I think the Lord has some great blessings in store for this area and I’m glad I got to be here for the beginning of it.

One of our new investigators is Vivian. She is super cool and on splits this week we saw tons of miracles. It was our first time going on splits with our ward, we have been trying to get it set up for some time now and finally got it going. It had been difficult trying to set up appointments with Vivian and her son Carlos.  However, Elder Pate found her home on splits and had a great restoration lesson! They had to cut it a little short because it was late, but we are excited to teach them more. 

On my split we also caught two less active families, one of which the children were recent converts and we just haven’t been able to keep in touch. Today however we caught them both! I think when members and missionaries work together we really start to see a lot of miracles. Oh I almost forgot! We also had stake conference this week and it was awesome! The Armenian Elders let me do some of the translating to so that was lots of fun and even though my Armenian is bad, I’m so grateful I had one last time to translate and I felt like it went well, for my standards at least. That’s it for this week! I hope you all have a great week! 

Pics: Last Zone activity! Had fun spending it with some of my favorite missionaries still alive in the mission. 

Letter 101 Baptism!!!

Hey Everyone!

It was a great week last week! Sonia was baptized and it was so amazing! We haven’t been working with Sonia for very long but she just soaks up everything we teach and has made amazing progress! That same day we also got to go to the temple with Mayra and do baptisms for the dead. I had the opportunity to be baptized for Mayras brother and it was a great experience. It was so amazing and the spirit was just so strong for me that day. I’m so grateful I had the chance to come on a mission and meet these people. It has been such an amazing experience to watch people come closer to Jesus Christ and to see their lives change. I have learned so much from my mission and I’m so grateful I came. It’s really changed who I am as a person and who I want to be when I come back. Serving has truly changed me and I want to keep being service minded when I come home. I challenge each of you to go the extra mile and serve someone else. Give of yourself and it will change who you are. Have a great week!

Pics: Baptism! And a super Bomb Armenian dish

Letter 100 Zone Conference

Hey Everyone! Not much change here except for some great news! Sonia passed her interview this week which means she will be baptized this Saturday! We are super excited for her. Other than that though we didn’t have a great finding week. We are starting to face the post baptism blues but we did have a great zone conference on Tuesday. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot from it! 

Hopefully even with things being busy for the baptism we are able to find some new people to teach and prepare for June. We did have some great people at church this week as well and that was awesome! Some of them we have been working with for a while and so we were glad to have them and we had a bunch of returning less actives too. I love our ward so much, it’s so different from the stereotypical Mormon wards. This ward is always willing to help and serve those around them and I think that’s why they have such good attendance. They truly understand how to minister and people want to be there. Anyway, that’s about it for this week! Have a great week!

Letter 99 Mayra's Baptism!!

Hey Everyone!

It was a great week because Mayra was baptized! She is so awesome and prepared and we had such a wonderful service. I’m so grateful I got to be a part of her journey. I will put some pictures below. It was also a great Mother’s Day and really fun to see family! Everyone is so old now so it will be weird to go home, but it’s good to see that the same sibling jokes and teasing have not changed at all.

Other than the baptism we didn’t have too much going on. Sonia has made some wonderful progress too and we are excited for her baptism coming up! I love this area so much, I love being a missionary so much. It’s such a wonderful opportunity to see people changing their lives and learning truth. I’m so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the impact it’s made in my life. Because of the savior, I can change and I don’t need to keep making the same mistakes. There will always be hope for me and each one of his children because of the sacrifice he made.

I have been so blessed in my life to be raised in such a good family when families all around me are falling apart and I want to bring those same blessings to my children. I know the gospel blesses families and I’m so grateful for all that the lord has given me. I have one request for all of you and it’s a request that many of you have fulfilled already but I invite you to fulfill it again. Please read the Book of Mormon. Whether you have never read it or whether you have read it 200 times. I promise you that it will increase your understanding of the Lords love for us and it will help you find the happiness and peace that you might be lacking right now. I know it is true and it will bless your life more than anything. I hope you all have a great week!

Letter 98 Grateful!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry no pictures again this week I will try to get some before I go home but it’s Mother’s Day next week so who needs pictures anyway. Well this week has been awesome! Unfortunately we were dropped by a few people this week so now we don’t have a lot of prepared people for June. Hopefully we can find some more soon. However, Mayra passed the interview so that’s what matters! We are super excited for her baptism this weekend it’s going to be awesome!

Sonya is progressing super well also and so that is really good. Overall I’m enjoying this area a ton and things are going great! I’m so grateful for the restored gospel and you can clearly see the change it has had in Mayra's life and many others lives. I’m so grateful I got to be part of this wonderful journey of hers. There were some hiccups along the way, but she was willing to work through them and gain her own testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and that made all the difference. I hope you all have a great week!