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!