Transfers! October 12, 2015 Week Fifteen

Hey y'all!

The time has finally come to say goodbye to Elder Griffin.  He got a phone call from President Ames this week where President Ames said he would be going over to Arlington as a Zone Leader.  He's excited to get a car for the first time, and he's glad to go to a new area after six months here, but that's about his only positive feelings about it.  He's stressed about being a Zone Leader, he's upset about going to a new area, he's stressed about packing, and he's upset that he has to leave the O'Briens.

Speaking of the O'Briens, Katie committed to be baptized on November 3rd!  We met with them three times this week, and at one of our lessons, we asked her to pray about a day to be baptized on.  She prayed about it, and later said that her answer was to get baptized sometime in late October or early November.  She chose November 3rd because her 4-month old baby was born on the 3rd, their anniversary's on the 3rd, and overall, she says it's just a good date.  She's having trouble reading the Book of Mormon, and so we suggested that she listen to it instead; she said that that's been helping her a TON.  However, she's still having some trouble understanding it, so we're going to read some of it with them whenever we visit.  It's really interesting to see how people understand (or don't!) the Book of Mormon; I've grown up reading it my whole life, so I can read it and understand the meaning behind just about any verse.  People like Katie on the other hand have zero background with it, aren't used to the more archaic language in it, and are sometimes slightly intimidated by something that isn't the Bible.  We're hoping, fasting, and praying, that her Mom's okay with Katie's decision to be baptized.  She's been very against her taking the discussions, but Katie wants her mom to be at her baptism (part of why she chose November 3rd is because her mom will be in town).  Her mom grew up a Baptist and then converted to Catholicism when she got married because her husband is Catholic.  Now, she's getting angry at Katie, and accusing her of doing exactly what she herself did!  Katie feels sort of bad about it, since her mom feels like she "must not have been a good mother, or else she wouldn't go and leave the Catholic church."  Hopefully her mother's heart will be softened.

This week has been HOT.  I deeply regret talking about how beautiful it was last week, since apparently it curse us with 95 degree weather and 80% humidity.  Once again, we're stuck waiting for that beautiful Texas fall.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen.

P.S. If you ever find an error in the Gospel Library app, you can screenshot it and send it in to the Gospel Library team and they'll try to fix it.  Whenever you do it, there's an automated response email.  Lately, I've seen so many errors (small things like randomly and incorrectly capitalized words, weird misspellings, etc.  The weirdest thing I've found so far is in a talk when they cited a scripture as being found in Moses 2:39.  If you click on it, it brings you to Moses Chapter 2, but it doesn't know what to do after that- there are only 35 verses!), that somebody sent me an actual email thanking me for finding many errors, that they would get to work on them.  That was unexpected.

Joke of the week: Someone stole my Microsoft Office and they're going to pay. You have my Word.

Song of the week: http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/content/motab/en/videos/all-creatures-of-our-god-and-king.html

Scripture of the week: Psalms 27:1

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Fall is here! October 5, 2015 Week Fourteen

Hey y'all!

The long awaited time has come!  Many Texans have prophesied of its eventual arrival.  Elders have pined for it, members have sustained us for it.  What is this beautiful, magnificent event?  Autumn.  Seriously, Texas falls have the most beautiful weather I've ever seen.  The high is  about 80, the low is about 58 or 59 degrees, it's always sunny, there's a perfect breeze (or lack thereof), and the humidity is no longer a hindrance.  Walking around all day is now a joy, instead of a dreaded experience.

Another thing that all the missionaries have been waiting for came- General Conference!  In order to more fully capitalize on the opportunity, Elder Griffin and I made fliers to use as we contacted people.  I can't describe how many people were excited and interested by the ideas of a living Prophet, modern Apostles, and continued revelation.  We saw a lot of success come from using conference in our missionary work.  I don't know who gave my favorite talk.  I liked Uchtdorf's from the Saturday morning session, Anderson's from the Priesthood session, President Monson's from the Priesthood session, Holland's from the Saturday afternoon session, Bednar's from the closing session, Maynes' from the Saturday morning session, and many more!  Picking a favorite's too hard when all of these are revelation from God to us.  I loved when Stanfill talked about the Hiawatha trail, since I've also biked it and had a lot of cool experiences. When I first went into the tunnel he talked about, I was at the back of the group, and my bike light fell out.  I was instantly plunged into darkness; finding the scattered pieces of my light in the darkness was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done, since the nearest source of light was 2 miles away!  I also loved seeing James B. Martino.  He's a local hero around here; there's a megachurch over in Denton (a city in my mission) called Denton Bible Church.  It's one of the world's biggest sources of Anti-Mormon literature, and it actively attacks our members (verbally, not physically). One day they strung up a bunch of temple garments across the windows; Martino, one of the richest people in the area, said that unless the church took them down, he would buy the building, demolish it, and then give the land to the LDS church so that they could build a temple there.  Denton Bible took them down pretty quickly.

One of the highlights of the week was when we taught the O'Briens again.  We knew that Kathy(the wife) had a lot of issues about the Plan of Salvation, especially the three kingdoms.  We prayed so we could know what to say to her, and we were able to do just that.  It turns out her issue wasn't whether or not she believed it.  She was worried that mistakes she had made in the past would keep her from being with her family forever in the Celestial Kingdom.  She was so scared that when she died, her sins would keep her from being with her husband and children.  When we explained the power of the Atonement to her and how she could repent of her sins, she was so touched! We also read D&C 137 with her, and explained how we would not be judged for sins we had committed before we knew that what we were doing was wrong.  She's progressing so fast, and she' s super excited to get baptized!

I'm so happy that I can be out here and serve others.  Seeing the difference the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes in the lives of people brings more joy than anything else I've ever experienced.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen.

Joke of the week: And the Lord said unto John, "Come forth and you will receive eternal life." But John came fifth, and won a toaster.

Song of the week: http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/videos/i-believe-in-christ.html

Scripture of the week: Isaiah 54:10

10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee,neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

Elder Griffin & I saw this the other day. It really made me glad to be

at the top of the food chain! The spider was about as big as my thumb!

Best week yet! September 28, 2015 Week Thirteen

Hey y'all!

This week was amazing!  We've had even less spare time to talk with people!  Unfortunately, our church tour did punch, but that was just about the only thing that did. On Monday we met with a part-member family called the O'Briens.  Scott, the husband, was born a member but hasn't been to church since he was about 15.  He never listened in church, so he's learning everything as we teach them.  Katie, the wife, was raised Catholic, but went inactive in that church because she didn't believe it had the truth.  We taught them about the nature of God (that he is our loving Heavenly Father), and answered many questions they have.  Then, we met with them again on Thursday and taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They said that they believed every word of it, and that it all makes so much more sense than what they've been hearing before.  We invited Katie to be baptized, and she immediately said yes!  They're progressing faster than anybody else we've seen out here. When we gave them the Book of Mormon, they were more excited than anybody I've ever seen before about anything! They looked like they just won the world's biggest lottery.  We also gave them a copy of The Restoration DVD, and within an hour they had watched it with their family and texted us back saying that they loved it.  They've came to church three times this past month, and they say that they plan on coming to church every week because they can feel the Spirit stronger there than anywhere else.  They love how they can learn about the Gospel, how coming to church has strengthened their marriage, and how their kids are so much more well-behaved now.  It's not uncommon for their kids to just suddenly start singing "Follow the Prophet" as they play together, which is super adorable.

We've also been moving along with teaching  Corbin, who's a nine year old in a very less-active family.  They haven't been to church in years, but they want him to get baptized.  We're trying to use the discussions not just as a way to introduce him into the church, but also to reactivate them, because there's no way that he'll stay active if his family never goes to church.

We also had Zone Conference this week, which was awesome!  It was my first one, and I can't stop looking forwards to the next one!  We also had a mission-wide meeting on Friday about Sabbath day observance.  We watched portions of a broadcast that was the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaching General Authorities about how important the Sabbath and the Sacrament is.  It was super cool seeing that as missionaries of the Lord, we were held on the same level as general authorities.

Another cool thing that happened was just last night.  Elder Griffin and I went out tracting, and there were tons of people outside, because it there was that night a full moon, in perfect lunar eclipse, and it turned into a blood moon!  Elder Griffin had never seen anything like it before, so it was super cool for him.

This week I also got a package from Victoria- with a Portuguese Book of Mormon.  Between the one that she sent me, one that I got in the mail from I don't know who, and one that an Elder in my mission obtained for me, I've got more than I'll probably ever need. Hopefully I can find enough Portuguese/Brazilian people to give them to!

I've run out of time already (again!); I guess I need to stop having so much to tell about each week. :)

Hope your week was as great as mine was!

Elder Jensen.

P.S. I'm going to start doing a joke of the week, a song of the week, and a scripture of the week.  Enjoy!

Joke of the week: Want to hear a word I made up? Plagiarism.

Song of the week: http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/content/motab/en/videos/come-thou-fount-of-every-blessing.html

Scripture of the week: Moroni Chapter 1 Verses 1-3: 

1 Now I, Moroni, after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; and I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me.

2 For behold, their wars are exceedingly fierce among themselves; and because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ.

 3 And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life.

Half Way Through Transfer 2 September 21, 2015 Week Twelve

Hey y'all!

This week FLEW by.  We've been so busy that when we speak to people & they try to schedule an appointment with us, we often have to schedule them three weeks into the future!  It's so crazy, but I love it.  Our business has helped us to see more success, more investigators, and more blessings.  There's no way that we should've been able to even get to half of all of our appointments, but we've managed to do it with the help of God.  The other day, it was (FINALLY) raining, and we had to bike for like five miles in the pouring rain!  There's a joke in the missionary that when you drop your scriptures, your future spouse gains fifty pounds.  The only way to undo this is to either tract/bike in the rain, baptize somebody, or bike up the steepest hill/mountain in your entire mission.  Elder Griffin is really bad about dropping his scriptures-in one week, his future wife gained 450 pounds! He was very excited to get out and bike in the rain.  I figured my wife's anorexic now, because I haven't dropped my scriptures yet, and it was raining so hard, it was at least 200 pounds worth of weight gone.

We had a super cool experience this week.  The Mission President held a huge fireside last night, and we invited about twenty of our investigators to come to it.  Most of them couldn't, but about three or four of them said they could.  However, within five minutes of when we were supposed to leave for it, all of them canceled.  We were super disappointed, and really confused as to what we were going to do for the rest of the night.  However, we went out and tried to talk to people anyways.  In the short space of an hour and a half, we taught one lesson, met one person who said he would come to church, handed out one Book of Mormon, set up one appointment, and set up our first church tour.  God knew that as great as it would've been to see our investigators at that meeting, we would see SO much more success from going out to work that night.

Hopefully your week is as busy as mine was, and hopefully you'll see the hand of God in your life as much as I have!

Elder Jensen

Weekly report September 14, 2015 Week Eleven

Hi y'all!

This week has been an interesting one, filled with great things both good and bad.  Monday evening, we started talking to somebody who works for a megachurch down here. He said that he works in their "healing department." He said he had a prompting from The Spirit that one of us was suffering from left shoulder pains.  When we said that neither of us was, he quickly said that it was actually chronic headaches.  Obviously, neither of us are.  I told him that I did have a bit of a sore throat though, and so he said he would pray for me.  He placed his hand on my chest and began to pray, which was a little weird, but I'm not ever going to say no to a prayer.  It was weird though- as he was praying, he was asking God to heal my throat, and as he did so, my throat started feeling better.  It helped me understand that God answers the prayers of all his children, not just the ones in his church.  However, as soon as he started commanding the disease to leave my body, my throat started hurting again.  Because he didn't have the authority to heal me himself, his attempt to do so did not work.  Had he simply prayed for me, I have no doubt that my throat would've been immediately perfectly fine.  However, since he didn't have the Priesthood, he couldn't bless me himself.

Later in the week was really awesome, because the Blue Angels were in the area.  They were out practicing their maneuvers before their big show, so we got to see them do all sorts of tricks (they even did a barrel roll!).  Fortunately, others were outside watching them too; the Blue Angels combined with the cooler weather we've been having lately made being outside so much more appealing to them. That meant that we were able to have much more success for those days than we did on others.  Going up to people on the street and talking with them is SO much more effective tracting.  The planes flying around also made for a great conversation starter.  

When our area gained the other ward last week, we gained a new set of investigators as well. Something bad that happened yesterday was when an investigator of ours who we just gained (who has a baptismal date!) suddenly tried to drop us.  We went over to her house and talked to her after church, and she said she had some concerns, especially about the three kingdoms.  So many people get hung up on that, it bugs me to no end.  People just need to understand that if they know Joseph Smith was God's prophet, they will believe in things like that, or the Word of Wisdom, or that the Book of Abraham was inspired, or eternal progression (seriously, Texans out here HATE that and attack it to no end), etc. and the way that they can know that is if they read the Book of Mormon.  Seriously, EVERYTHING as a missionary depends on the Book of Mormon, and if an investigator's not reading it, they'll never gain a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel.  Lindsey (the investigator with the baptismal date) said that she does want to talk with us and resolve those issues if possible though, so we're excited for that, and we're meeting with her again tonight. We're praying that it'll go well and that she will feel the Spirit again.  We're worried that she might have had Favorite Missionary Syndrome (where an investigator gets really attached to a certain missionary and converts to them instead of the gospel), but we also know that even if she does, she can overcome it through Christ.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen.

This is a map of the new part of my area.

This is the entirety of our area, old and new area included

A member sent me (Mom) this picture. She was impressed that he was on his second 

large potato. I reassured her that he loves to eat!!

Busy! September 7, 2015 Week Ten

Hey y'all!
I've decided to formally start saying y'all. Before any of you make fun of me, think about it this way- English is one of the few languages in the world without a proper worder for you (plural). This week has been an interesting one. First off, it's Labor Day today, so that means the libraries are closed, which in turn means I didn't have a computer to email with. That brings me to the next crazy thing- I got the email on my iPad working! I'm pretty slow at typing on it, but now I can send y'all some pictures. 

The craziest thing that happened this week is way bigger than that though. I'm in the Woodland Springs 2nd Ward. The Woodland Springs 1st ward elders live down the stairs from us. This next transfer, one of them would be leaving, and the other was staying and would be there the next two transfers because he would be training. However, when the new Elders came in on Tuesday, they were one short. That meant that the Elder who was going to stay here got told that he would be training in a trio in another area with at 6 o' clock that day, which meant he and his companion had about 14 hours to pack up everything in their apartment and leave. Also, this means that we are now covering 2 wards, and we only had 51/2 hours notice! We now go to church for 6 1/2 hours, we have 2 Bishops & 2 Ward Mission Leaders to talk with, and twice as many investigators! Our schedules have been SUPER chaotic. That's okay, because our new investigators are awesome.

Aaugh! I ran out of time already! I hate typing on my iPad keyboard, it's so slow!

Hope you have a great day!
Elder Jensen.

I'm thoroughly convinced Toy Story takes place in Texas, 
because this is what the sky looks like almost every day.

This is what I looked like on the first day out here!

All the bugs here are huge! Sights like this aren't uncommon; fortunately that first one was dead. The other two photos are of a cicada shell. 

I had never seen one before, so it was cool to see and handle one.

Elder Griffin & I were out street contacting one day, and we found some guy 

working on a DeLorean in his driveway. I love the license plate!

Here's a photo with Elder Griffin, Greg (the French foreign exchange student), and me. It was after we taught him the third lesson, which was also our last with him.

I finally found some palm trees!

First transfer August 31, 2015 Week Nine

Hey everybody!

This week was so great!  We handed out so many copies of the Book of Mormon that we actually ran out! Not only did we run out, but so did all the Elders downstairs AND down the street.  This week our goal was to get more return appointments out of our investigators, and boy were we blessed. We had a fast on Sunday that one of our investigators will remember their appointment on Friday, and while we that hasn't happened yet, I can't imagine that it won't.  During our fast, one of our investigators came to church for the first time! Her name is Connie, and she is the nicest little old German lady I've ever met.... not that I've met many Germans.  We met her two weeks ago, and already she's reading the Book of Mormon, believes it's true, and wants to come to church each week.  We're going to talk with her later this week, and we might invite her over for dinner at the Bishop's house (that's the Bishop's idea, we're not trying to impose on him).  We've had so much success, I don't even know how we're going to fit it all in our schedules.

Sorry I don't have time for much more this week, but like I said, we're pretty busy as missionaries, and especially so this week.

Hope you all have a great day!

Elder Jensen