Week 9-July 27, 2015
Hey fam! so good to hear from you all. sounds like singing in the rain
went super well, i loved the pictures mom thanks for sending them!
send me tons of pictures all the time i love it! Can you please tell
me if my letter to benjamin got there or not?! im kind of dying to
know because you still havent told me!!! and WOAH HAPPY ONE YEAR
ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you are going to be home for
Christmas this year!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like you are doing really well
and i can't believe your less active is marrying your ward mission
leader. That's crazy.. our ward mission leader is absolutely
incredible but he is moving with his family to Utah in a month so
we're really sad to see him go. this ward is going through some
challenges because both of the bishops counselors have now moved (one
this week) so bishop is on his own and many of the families in the
ward are moving or have already moved this summer. Apparently this is
the nature of the ward though, because its a pretty American ward and
the American embassy is in our boundaries and the workers only stay
about 2 years and then are relocated so people are constantly coming
in and out. Anyways me and Elder Chronister are trying hard to help
out and yesterday were super glad that both Agusto and Edward
Callender, both preisthood holders who have been inactive for years
came to church and they are both incredible and i think the Lord is
going to take care of the ward and as bishop said, he will send us
what we need. It is exciting to see it happening though, and we will
keep doing our best. Agusto is such an incredible story and i know ive
told it before but we had another great lesson with him this week. we
see him every saturday when we go to his filipino food stall on the
street market which is getting super popular and successful, but we
also saw him for dinner another night and helped him break into a flat
in their building for a friend. he ended up walking from one balcony
across a board to another on the second floor while i held the board
still and everyone on the sidewalk watched with excitement hahahaha it
was really funny because we had unfortunately broken the lock by
trying to kick the door down (crazy to think that would happen) and so
even though he got the key and opened it, the door was broken at that
point and they had to replace the lock. but he cooked dinner for us
and we had brought no bake cookies that we messed up somehow and we
read matthew 26:36-44 with him and talked about the atonement and what
it means to do God's will. I made an analogy that its like a kid and
his father, and the father tells the kid to do something he doesnt
want to do but the father knows is best for him. the kid trusts his
dad and so he does it, and then ends up thanking him later. For
example, dad asked me to do certain things that i did not want to do
when i was younger and as a teenager but i trusted him and did it and
now looking back i am very glad i did. Because Heavenly Father knows
what is best for us, we need to trust him. To do his will and have
faith that one day we will look back and thank him. That really
effected Agusto and he opened up to us about some personal things and
his testimony, and although he is hesitant to tell anyone else those
kinds of things, he is determined to take it slowly and get back on
track and we are so excited for him. Something i want to share with
you is that God answers our prayers. It is a simple truth that can't
be learned by hearing and needs to be learned from experience, and i
am very grateful to be able to say that i know it is true because of
some experiences this week. Yesterday i had something that was
bothering me and i didnt feel like i could talk to people or have the
companionship of the Spirit when we hit the streets for a few hours to
do street contacting so i said a prayer, asked for forgiveness for a
certain thing, then was about to pray for a new investigator for us to
meet and teach, when i paused and thought about it. Why did i want God
to put someone for us to teach in our path? Because i wanted to be a
good missionary and i wanted to feel that i was doing good work. Then
i realized that i am not here to do my own work, i am here to serve my
Heavenly Father and assist in His work. So instead I thanked Him for
the opportunity to serve him, and humbled myself to whatever that
would entail, be it finding someone who wanted to hear the gospel or
be it stopping many people unsuccesfully and getting frustrated. If
God wants to place someone in our path, he will do it, and most likely
it will not be because we want to inflate our pride by getting the
notion that we are doing such good work. Itll be because its part of
his plan for that person for them to run into us. Once i submitted
myself to this thought i felt a great amount of confidence and peace,
knowing that i was grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ and
grateful to do what I could to serve God and whatever that meant we
would be able to accomplish that day, it was up to the Lord. Soon
after, i saw a woman crossing the street towards me, and after
hesitating, i decided to ask her what her favorite thing about rainy
days was. ( it was a rainy day). She answered and then said, smiling,
I know you! youre a mormon! i smiled and nodded and she said "im a
mormon!" turns out she had been baptized 2 years ago and married to
her husband in a church by her bishop, but had been moving a lot and
lost track of missionaries and was in a new place and didnt know where
the chapel was or anything. It was clear she was still very new to the
church, and needed help and fellowship. I explained a lot of things to
her and helped her as best i could, then she asked to take a selfie
with me to send to her husband and asked us to visit her and then i
tried to shake her hand to say bye and she brushed my hand aside and
hugged me... i probably looked like such a fool because i just
awkwardly had my arms to my sides and didnt know what to do but she
didnt seem to mind that i didnt return it thankfully.. anyways i was
shocked as i walked away and realized that my prayer had been answered
so clearly in a way i didnt expect. i was able to meet this woman who
may have needed to meet us far more than we could have imagined, and
although she is already a member of our church, each soul is just as
important as another to Heavenly Father and she may have needed to run
into us that day more than any 'new investigator.' i was humbled by
that lesson and was so grateful that god had trusted me with placing
her in my path and allowing me to be a part of His work. The story
gets better though, because just as i was feeling satisfied, full of
joy and very grateful, we continued to contact and a little while
later, we hadnt talked to anyone in a while because it was a rainy day
and nobody wanted to be walking around and we were on a small street
going to a less actives house but i had an impulse to randomly stop a
man with a dog and ask him what kind of dog it was. he ended up asking
us more questions than we could answer about our church and what we
believed. it turns out, this guy named Chris Leslie (probably about
30) had been researching the bible and religions for the past 4 months
relentlessly, and professed his knowledge that Jesus is the way, but
he was searching for the true way to follow him because so many
churches contradict each other yet claim to follow the same person,
that person being Christ. He is confused, and after we tried our best
to answer many many questions (we are talking really good questions
like the gospel needing to be preached to the whole world before the
second coming, Elijah needing to return, the relationship between
Jesus and God and the holy ghost, our explanation of which he really
liked, and us being a part of God's family) he asked if he could have
one of these books of mormon we were holding and so i gave him mine,
we got his info, and set a time to come visit him and teach him more
this week. I felt prompted to ask him i he would be comfortable if we
said a prayer before we parted ways, and explained that in the
scriptures God asks us to pray at all times and he gladly accepted and
was interested in the sincerity and personal way of praying. it was
powerful, and i could see that he was touched by the prayer elder
chronister offered. we left him and realized we had spoken with him
for about an hour on the sidewalk in the rain. Then i thought back to
my silent prayer earlier that day and realized just how clearly i had
been heard and answered. just when i thought i had been answered, God
placed Chris in our path as well as if to prove to me that he really
does answer our prayers by giving me exactly what i had originally
wanted. I am humbled and so grateful for everything i learned this
past week, especially that experience.
Thanks mom for the recipes! I have gained some weight since leaving,
10 pounds to be exact, but that is what i used to weigh before the
marathon so it's not that crazy. We went a little crazy this past week
and are all (the four of us in our flat) recommitted to our respective
"diets". they are pretty crazy about it actually... protein and
wheatgrass all the time, no carbs, and Elder Leite bought some really
expensive mass gainers to start taking. he is starting them tomorrow
and has been "bulking" and hopes to gain 10 kg (23 ish pounds) in the
next two weeks hahahahaaha im really excited and told him to take a
shirtless before and after pic so we'll see what happens. our flat is
so much fun, and this morning we sang how firm a foundation together
at the start of our companion study ( we sing together every morning)
and we KILLED it. we sang with some gusto.. i realized how awesome it
feels to be part of such a great work and to feel the brotherhood of
other missionaries.
I am doing great and love you all so much! i am going to try to reply
to each of you personally this week.
Elder Jensen
ill send some pics separately
went super well, i loved the pictures mom thanks for sending them!
send me tons of pictures all the time i love it! Can you please tell
me if my letter to benjamin got there or not?! im kind of dying to
know because you still havent told me!!! and WOAH HAPPY ONE YEAR
ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you are going to be home for
Christmas this year!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like you are doing really well
and i can't believe your less active is marrying your ward mission
leader. That's crazy.. our ward mission leader is absolutely
incredible but he is moving with his family to Utah in a month so
we're really sad to see him go. this ward is going through some
challenges because both of the bishops counselors have now moved (one
this week) so bishop is on his own and many of the families in the
ward are moving or have already moved this summer. Apparently this is
the nature of the ward though, because its a pretty American ward and
the American embassy is in our boundaries and the workers only stay
about 2 years and then are relocated so people are constantly coming
in and out. Anyways me and Elder Chronister are trying hard to help
out and yesterday were super glad that both Agusto and Edward
Callender, both preisthood holders who have been inactive for years
came to church and they are both incredible and i think the Lord is
going to take care of the ward and as bishop said, he will send us
what we need. It is exciting to see it happening though, and we will
keep doing our best. Agusto is such an incredible story and i know ive
told it before but we had another great lesson with him this week. we
see him every saturday when we go to his filipino food stall on the
street market which is getting super popular and successful, but we
also saw him for dinner another night and helped him break into a flat
in their building for a friend. he ended up walking from one balcony
across a board to another on the second floor while i held the board
still and everyone on the sidewalk watched with excitement hahahaha it
was really funny because we had unfortunately broken the lock by
trying to kick the door down (crazy to think that would happen) and so
even though he got the key and opened it, the door was broken at that
point and they had to replace the lock. but he cooked dinner for us
and we had brought no bake cookies that we messed up somehow and we
read matthew 26:36-44 with him and talked about the atonement and what
it means to do God's will. I made an analogy that its like a kid and
his father, and the father tells the kid to do something he doesnt
want to do but the father knows is best for him. the kid trusts his
dad and so he does it, and then ends up thanking him later. For
example, dad asked me to do certain things that i did not want to do
when i was younger and as a teenager but i trusted him and did it and
now looking back i am very glad i did. Because Heavenly Father knows
what is best for us, we need to trust him. To do his will and have
faith that one day we will look back and thank him. That really
effected Agusto and he opened up to us about some personal things and
his testimony, and although he is hesitant to tell anyone else those
kinds of things, he is determined to take it slowly and get back on
track and we are so excited for him. Something i want to share with
you is that God answers our prayers. It is a simple truth that can't
be learned by hearing and needs to be learned from experience, and i
am very grateful to be able to say that i know it is true because of
some experiences this week. Yesterday i had something that was
bothering me and i didnt feel like i could talk to people or have the
companionship of the Spirit when we hit the streets for a few hours to
do street contacting so i said a prayer, asked for forgiveness for a
certain thing, then was about to pray for a new investigator for us to
meet and teach, when i paused and thought about it. Why did i want God
to put someone for us to teach in our path? Because i wanted to be a
good missionary and i wanted to feel that i was doing good work. Then
i realized that i am not here to do my own work, i am here to serve my
Heavenly Father and assist in His work. So instead I thanked Him for
the opportunity to serve him, and humbled myself to whatever that
would entail, be it finding someone who wanted to hear the gospel or
be it stopping many people unsuccesfully and getting frustrated. If
God wants to place someone in our path, he will do it, and most likely
it will not be because we want to inflate our pride by getting the
notion that we are doing such good work. Itll be because its part of
his plan for that person for them to run into us. Once i submitted
myself to this thought i felt a great amount of confidence and peace,
knowing that i was grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ and
grateful to do what I could to serve God and whatever that meant we
would be able to accomplish that day, it was up to the Lord. Soon
after, i saw a woman crossing the street towards me, and after
hesitating, i decided to ask her what her favorite thing about rainy
days was. ( it was a rainy day). She answered and then said, smiling,
I know you! youre a mormon! i smiled and nodded and she said "im a
mormon!" turns out she had been baptized 2 years ago and married to
her husband in a church by her bishop, but had been moving a lot and
lost track of missionaries and was in a new place and didnt know where
the chapel was or anything. It was clear she was still very new to the
church, and needed help and fellowship. I explained a lot of things to
her and helped her as best i could, then she asked to take a selfie
with me to send to her husband and asked us to visit her and then i
tried to shake her hand to say bye and she brushed my hand aside and
hugged me... i probably looked like such a fool because i just
awkwardly had my arms to my sides and didnt know what to do but she
didnt seem to mind that i didnt return it thankfully.. anyways i was
shocked as i walked away and realized that my prayer had been answered
so clearly in a way i didnt expect. i was able to meet this woman who
may have needed to meet us far more than we could have imagined, and
although she is already a member of our church, each soul is just as
important as another to Heavenly Father and she may have needed to run
into us that day more than any 'new investigator.' i was humbled by
that lesson and was so grateful that god had trusted me with placing
her in my path and allowing me to be a part of His work. The story
gets better though, because just as i was feeling satisfied, full of
joy and very grateful, we continued to contact and a little while
later, we hadnt talked to anyone in a while because it was a rainy day
and nobody wanted to be walking around and we were on a small street
going to a less actives house but i had an impulse to randomly stop a
man with a dog and ask him what kind of dog it was. he ended up asking
us more questions than we could answer about our church and what we
believed. it turns out, this guy named Chris Leslie (probably about
30) had been researching the bible and religions for the past 4 months
relentlessly, and professed his knowledge that Jesus is the way, but
he was searching for the true way to follow him because so many
churches contradict each other yet claim to follow the same person,
that person being Christ. He is confused, and after we tried our best
to answer many many questions (we are talking really good questions
like the gospel needing to be preached to the whole world before the
second coming, Elijah needing to return, the relationship between
Jesus and God and the holy ghost, our explanation of which he really
liked, and us being a part of God's family) he asked if he could have
one of these books of mormon we were holding and so i gave him mine,
we got his info, and set a time to come visit him and teach him more
this week. I felt prompted to ask him i he would be comfortable if we
said a prayer before we parted ways, and explained that in the
scriptures God asks us to pray at all times and he gladly accepted and
was interested in the sincerity and personal way of praying. it was
powerful, and i could see that he was touched by the prayer elder
chronister offered. we left him and realized we had spoken with him
for about an hour on the sidewalk in the rain. Then i thought back to
my silent prayer earlier that day and realized just how clearly i had
been heard and answered. just when i thought i had been answered, God
placed Chris in our path as well as if to prove to me that he really
does answer our prayers by giving me exactly what i had originally
wanted. I am humbled and so grateful for everything i learned this
past week, especially that experience.
Thanks mom for the recipes! I have gained some weight since leaving,
10 pounds to be exact, but that is what i used to weigh before the
marathon so it's not that crazy. We went a little crazy this past week
and are all (the four of us in our flat) recommitted to our respective
"diets". they are pretty crazy about it actually... protein and
wheatgrass all the time, no carbs, and Elder Leite bought some really
expensive mass gainers to start taking. he is starting them tomorrow
and has been "bulking" and hopes to gain 10 kg (23 ish pounds) in the
next two weeks hahahahaaha im really excited and told him to take a
shirtless before and after pic so we'll see what happens. our flat is
so much fun, and this morning we sang how firm a foundation together
at the start of our companion study ( we sing together every morning)
and we KILLED it. we sang with some gusto.. i realized how awesome it
feels to be part of such a great work and to feel the brotherhood of
other missionaries.
I am doing great and love you all so much! i am going to try to reply
to each of you personally this week.
Elder Jensen
ill send some pics separately
These are from Queens Park, a small but huge beautiful park in our
area we just discovered this week while finding! It has a pet area andsome animals its soooo cool
Thanks for the pictures by the way :) I went to the British museum today and it was incredible... Just jaw dropping! I'll send you a picture of me and the Rosetta Stone I just snappd a quick selfie cause it was really crowded
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