Goodbye to Killeen August 8, 2016 Week Fifty-eight

Hey y'all!

As I'm guessing you learned from the subject, the time has come for me to depart from Killeen and head elsewhere. We got a phone call on Wednesday morning telling us that Elder Hughes would be training! Naturally, the downside to that is that I'm getting kicked out. I've spent the last four and a half months here, and I've truly seen miracles. One of the more troubled youth in one of the Wards who we've been working with a lot and gotten really close to came up to me on Sunday and have me a hug, asking why I had to leave. I told him about the first time Adam offered sacrifice, how an angel appeared to him and asked him why he was giving sacrifice. His answer was the one that I have to this boy- "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." I don't know why I have to leave when we've had so much success together, but I know that God has a purpose in all things, and that He had a work for me to accomplish somewhere else. This morning I found out where I'm headed- Flowermound 3rd Ward, back in the Lewisville Zone! It's practically next door to my second area, and there's tons of great people up there. Both Elder Hughes and Elder Mohrmann have served there, and they've told me nothing but good things about it. So, I'm sad to leave here, but excited to go to a place like that.

One of the more remarkable events of this week was a car accident! Yup. I never thought that I would say that, but it's true. What happened is we were in the right hand turn lane turning right. We had our right hand blinker on. We were in the lane farthest to the right, where nobody could pull to the right of us. In other words, we had made every indication possible that we were about to turn right short of screaming it out of giant speakers and holding giant flashing neon lights instead of normal turn signals. Then, wouldn't you know, somebody pulled to the right of us right as we turned! They pulled up on the shoulder of the road trying to sneak around us, but they pulled ahead so far forward that the front left corner of their car scraped the entire right side of our car. We both pulled over and got each other's info, and then went or separate ways. I'm glad that nobody in either car was hurt, but I feel so bad for the guy! Legally, he was at fault, but he had just bought the car days earlier and was going to his Insurance Company to get it insured the next day! The situation probably won't affect me that much considering I'm leaving on Wednesday morning, but it's still worth noting. I'll attach pictures so you can see the (minimal) damage.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Continued success in Killeen! August 1, 2016 Week Fifty-seven

Hey y'all!

Elder Hughes and I have had a pretty good week! We've been focusing a lot on trying to get members out with us teaching, and we're doing a lot better than we've done in the past. Usually, we'll have two or three member present lessons, but this week, we had five! Granted, we didn't teach quite as many lessons as we would've liked to, but we still did decent, teaching fifteen lessons. It would've been closer to seventeen or eighteen, but several of our regular teaching appointments cancelled last minute, and all for valid reasons (like a death in the family). Oh, well. There's not really much you can do about people's lives getting in the way.

One of the people who has made the most progress recently is a woman named Virginia. She was a referral who wanted a Bible, but we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon as well and teaching her about the Restoration of the Gospel. In the past week, we've taught her the first three lessons. At the first lesson, her husband was there and he (a nonmember), helped us teach the first lesson to her. We then brought two different members with us to teach her the second and third lessons, and they went really well. She really needs the joy the Gospel brings in her life. We're positive that she has bipolar, and we're 90% certain she's schizophrenic as well. However, over the past week and a half of teaching her, we've seen her mental stability increase, and she's considerably happier than when we first met her. She was going to come to church on Sunday, but then her car broke down and her husband got arrested (for something he didn't do, so the
charges were dropped pretty quickly), so she didn't make it out. We stopped by her house after church and shared with her about how Joseph Smith was overcome by darkness before he had his First Vision, and that Satan is trying his best to stop her because he knows she's on the right path. At the beginning of this week, that would've terrified her and made her start crying, but now she said she's glad to receive an additional witness that this is the right path for her, even if that witness doesn't come from the most desirable source.

Hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Jensen

Progress in Killeen! July 25, 2016 Week Fifty-six

Hey y'all!

This week went by pretty well for us! We were able to keep pretty busy essentially all week long, but there was definitely a few days that felt busier than others. One of the days we felt like we accomplished absolutely nothing, but then we looked back on it, and we got about two hours of service, taught one lesson to an investigator, one lesson to a recent convert, and two lessons to members! It's crazy when that feels like a bad day, but that's Killeen for you. Missionaries are able to accomplish SO much down here, it's insane.

One of the people we're seeing the most progress with is a returning less active who is trying to get temple worthy. She started meeting with us because she felt like she didn't know things she should know about the Gospel (which is pretty true, since she's a convert of only three years who had no religious background before joining the church, and she's been completely inactive for two and a half of those three years), but now the primary reason she's meeting with us is to prepare to go to the temple. She met with the Bishop yesterday, but she wasn't able to get one because she isn't paying Tithing yet. Oh, well. Baby steps. She'll get there eventually, hopefully sometime soon! Until then (and maybe even after then) we will work with her trying to help her achieve that.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Further success in Killeen! July 18, 2016 Week Fifty-five

Hey y'all!

This week was great!

Elder Hughes and I went on exchange with our Zone Leaders this week. Right now, they're teaching over thirty lessons a week, whereas we are almost at twenty, so needless to say, we did our best to learn from them. We are now moving forward with a greater vision for our area and for ourselves as missionaries. Exchanges are one of my favorite things as missionaries. You just grow so much! Also, on exchange, we didn't have a dinner, and so the Elder came to our area with me made some breaded tilapia with lemon juice and pepper. I guess missions turn you into a good cook? ;)

We had some really cool lessons with Jordan, one of our Investigators who is close to baptism. He was hit by a car recently, and while he's looks fine on the surface, he's actually really messed up inside now. He asked us to give him a Priesthood blessing at one of those lessons, and then he scheduled appointments with us to give him a blessing the day before the surgery and to do so the day afterwards. He definitely knows the church is true. Heck, he's more active in the church than most of the members of his Ward! He's definitely going to get baptized, but he still has a few things that need to be worked out.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen