Halfway Point..... :(‏ July 11, 2016 Week Fifty-four

Hey y'all!

As you can probably surmise from the subject line, one of the worst days in a missionaries service came this week- the halfway point. From here on out, every day will be my last on my mission (last July 20th, last July 21st, etc.). Actually, that's not entirely true, because while I did leave on the 8th of July, I'll actually get home on July 13, 2017, which means I'll have a few days that I'll experience three times as a missionary. Hooray for serving slightly over two years!

This week was super busy! It started off with an Independence Day, where we had tons of appointments (and we were fed at all of them), and then we had normal P-Day things like shopping and laundry to do in top of that! The rest of the week we've been rushing from service to lessons, to meetings, to meals, and more! We've definitely seen some miracles this week too. We've had lots of solid investigators drop off the face of the earth for about a month, and all of a sudden they all answered their doors, answered their phones, or texted back. All things considered, they had pretty legitimate reasons, like going to Houston for a month, going to California for a month, tearing their MCL and ACL, being eight months pregnant and sick, and being hit by a car. All things considered, it's pretty incredible that they were even able to speak with us at all! God really has blessed both them and us, because otherwise there's no way all this could work out the way it did. We're just hoping and praying we'll be able to stay in contact with them.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Happy Independence Day!!! July 4, 2016 Week 53

Hey y'all!

First off, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!! I'm so happy to be able to celebrate the birth of this country where we can live and worship as we please. God founded this country upon the same principles that the Plan of Salvation revolves around: freedom to choose and our love for God and His Son. I got to play the National Anthem on the organ in both Wards yesterday, and I figuratively (and literally) pulled out all the stops (except for the tremulant stops, because those are just the worst). The best part about it was that 90% of everybody there is serving or has served in the armed forces, and so they all sang their hearts out. It's definitely going to be one of the highlights of my mission.

President Ames went home this last Thursday. We were all really sad, but we knew his time had come. We got to meet our new Mission President on Saturday, and while he's very green around the ears, he's super excited to work with us.

I don't have a lot of time to write today, since we're going to be running nonstop today until about 8:30 PM, but in the meantime, may God bless America.

Elder Jensen

Transfers.......?‏ June 28, 2016 Week Fifty-two

Hey y'all!

This week was an interesting one. Elder Hughes and I have been together for two transfers, and it's pretty rare to stay together longer than that. We knew one of us was going to leave this time, but neither of us wanted to go. When we got a phone call from our Zone Leaders this morning, we mournfully answered. Turns out- we're both staying. For a third transfer. WWHHOOOOOO!!! We've got some great stuff lined up in this area, and we're truly going to see miracles this transfer.

Elder Hughes and I picked up another solid new investigator this week. A less-active member invited us over to his house, and we didn't quite know what to expect. Turns out, his (wife? Girlfriend? We don't know) wants to get baptized! We taught her the the first lesson and now we have a lesson scheduled with them every week. The only problem is that she has short term memory issues. So, she's like Dory, but not quite as bad. It's going to be super interesting teaching the both of them.

My Mission President, President Ames, also goes home on Thursday. Booooooooooooo......

Today is an especially special day, because 172 years ago Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed in the Carthage Jail. Being out here in Texas, we're daily surrounded by people who fight against us daily, who seek nothing but to tear is down. I can't count all the Anti-Mormon arguments that have been thrown at us, or all the people screaming at us that we're going to hell, or all the hatred towards Joseph Smith and what he did. Every day that we go through things like that, I reflect on how Joseph and Hyrum knew this work to be of God, and how this belief of theirs was so strong that they were willing to die for it. Wicked men believed that by killing them, they could end the "Mormon cult," but here we are today, boldly testifying that this church is true, that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, and that Joseph Smith was indeed a Prophet of God called by Him to usher in the last dispensation. Hot dang, I love being a missionary.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

The Refiner's Fire June 20, 2016 Week Fifty-one

Hey y'all! 

 This week was definitely an interesting one. First off, Elder Hughes
turned twenty on Wednesday and I turned nineteen on Saturday. Yup.
Another year older. We each got a phone call from the Mission Office
telling (singing, actually) is happy birthday. Yup. Everybody in the
area found out it was our birthdays, but everybody was super busy, so
we got about a dozen meals dropped off to us. 

 You're probably wondering why this email is called the refiner's fire.
There's actually a couple of reasons why. Starting with the small
trial, (actually a double entendre on the word fire) it was HOT this
will. Killeen has always been super humid, but now it's pretty
intense. If we have a few hours open in our schedule, we usually just
try and walk around to try and visit some potential investigators
we've met in the past. The problem is, we'll walk around from 1
immediately after lunch time until it's time for dinner in 100+ degree
temperature with 100%+ humidity.....I might have been exaggerating
about the humidity, but it's still pretty bad (about 80-90%). It
wouldn't be too bad it we knew that this was the worst that it would
get, but this is nothing compared to August down
here......yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy........ Oh, well. I've gone through one
summer here, I can go through another. 

 The other reason for the title is something that taught me that
walking around in the hot sun isn't too much to handle at all. One of
our Investigators who was close to getting baptized told us this week
that that would probably be the last time we spoke with her. When we
asked why not, she told us that she was getting kicked out of her
house, which means she'll be living out on the streets.....and she
lives DEEP in the hood.......and she had the toes on her right foot
amputated.......and they're infected. Yeah, she's got it hard. We gave
her a blessing, and then we taught her about trials instead of what we
were planning on. God could easily provide a way for her to
immediately be healed and keep her house, but she feels like this is a
trial that God wants her to endure. It brings to mind a quote from
Joshua 14:12: Give me this mountain. God gives us all problems that
aren't fair at all, but He isn't necessarily punishing anyone- He's
giving us a burden to strengthen us and prepare us for greater things
in the future. While I pity Mary for being in the situation she is, I
wish that I also had the strength to say to God, "Give me this
mountain to climb." 

 Hope y'all have a great week! 

 Elder Jensen

Miracles in Killeen! June 13, 2016 Week Fifty

Hey y'all! 

 We have seen some incredible things happen this week! We were super
busy all week, and some crazy stuff went down. On Tuesday, we went on
exchange with the Spanish Elders in our district, and I actually
managed to retain quite a bit of my Spanish-speaking skills......Until
we went to a Cuban family's home. Turns out Cubans speak a completely
different dialect of Spanish than all other Hispanics, and I was
completely lost. Who knew? 

 We saw another awesome thing happen when a less active member came up
to us this past Sunday and asked us to come to his house and have
dinner. His wife is not a member, but she wants to come to our church.
Before she comes she wants to be taught more about our church, which
happens to be exactly what we're here to do. We ended up teaching her
the first lesson that we teach, and at the end of the lesson we
invited her to be baptized. She answered with a resounding yes! We
haven't spoken with them about when she will get baptized yet, but we
are still very excited. Her name is Ceci (pronounced like Stacy
without the "s"), and his name is Hunter. It's weird to be teaching
someone so young. Hunter is 20 years old only a month older than Elder
Hughes. Ceci on the other hand, is 19 and they're expecting a child in
about three months so their family is already beginning to grow. 

 We had zone Council this week, and it was awesome! We spoke about
goals we wanted to set for the month of July. After long deliberation
we determined that we would shoot for a goal of six people baptized in
our stake in the month of July. Almost everyone had a name to put
forward which adds up to almost 6, but not quite. However, in the next
few days we were, as Nephi would say, "exceedingly blessed." An
investigator of ours came to church, and he said he loved it so much
that he was going to bring his entire family next week. He said that
he wants to join this church and is willing to do whatever it takes!
We also had another less active move in, and she has two grand
daughters that have already taken all the lessons and are interested
in getting baptized! We also have another investigator named Mary who
wants to get baptized very soon. The only thing holding her back is
the fact that she recently had all of her toes on her right foot
amputated, and she needs the doctors approval in order to submerge it
in water. All were waiting for with her is her OK from the doctor to
be baptized. Our goal for the zone as of Friday was six for the month
of July but now, Elder Hughes and I could potential he baptize eight
people in July just by ourselves (and with the help of the Lord, of
course)! 

We are truly seeing miracles down here in Killeen, and we're hoping
and praying that nothing changes anytime soon. 

 Hope y'all have a great week! 

 Elder Jensen

A sad week.....‏June 6, 2016 Week Forty-nine

Hey y'all!

You're probably all wondering why the subject said this week was sad. There's two major reasons. To be honest, this week was actually pretty great, but there were two things that happened that were pretty sad. The first was when an LMTV (troop transport similar to a bus) rolled over on base into a river swollen from recent storms. Out of the twelve people in the vehicle, nine were killed, and the other three are critical. Everybody here is praying for the families of everyone involved, because they're undoubtedly in need of some help and comfort at this time.

The other sad thing that happened was that we had Stake Conference yesterday. Normally, that would be awesome (yesterday's conference was one of the best I've been to), but it was the last time I got to see my Mission President before he goes home, unless I get called to leadership for the next transfer, in which case I will see him the day before he goes home.

There was some good news this week though. My companion, Elder Hughes, has some painful lumps growing in random places all over his body. We went to the doctor to get them checked out, and we were told that he has lyphoma and has tumors growing all over his body. We were terrified until she explained that he had lyphoma, not lymphoma. Lyphoma is when you have fatty benign tumors growing on yourself because your body doesn't know how to store fat properly. So yeah, we're super happy he doesn't have cancer. 

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

President Ames' Last Zone Conference!‏ May 30, 2016 Week Forty-eight

Hey y'all!

This was a really great week. We had our quarterly Zone Conference, and in my opinion, it was the best one so far. The Spirit was so strong! At every Zone Conference of ours we have a part near the end where any Missionary who will be home before the next Zone Conference can bear their testimony to the other missionaries, and this time was really special for a number of reasons. First off, I got to hear my trainer give his departing testimony, which almost made me cry. Then, our Mission President and his wife gave one, during which we all cried. Also, about half of us were recording it, and so we all rewatched it multiple times.

I'm pretty drained right now to be honest. Over the past four days, we've spent about thirty hours at the church for random Missionary meetings, which really took the energy of of Elder Hughes and I. I'll tell y'all more next week!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Jensen