Week 81-December 12, 2016

Week 81-December 12, 2016

Sherree got baptised!

Cassi and Agapi should be getting baptised this Sunday without Angela
because her and Paulo can't get married until spring/ summertime due
to family in Angola... I'm so excited for them!! I love those two.

Grace and Amos (the Ghanaian family) are doing GREAT and came to
church late again but stayed for Sherree's baptism and really enjoyed
it. They are doing really well. We are seeing them tonight!

Elder Metcalf is awesome! Dad I think you're right... #blessed

Love you all so much. See you soon!

Mom, I don't know what church will be like for you guys on Christmas
but we will have an hour service at 10 our time and be somewhere with
Internet by 1 probably and then we can do anytime between 1 and 7 ish.
So ... can you respond ASAP to let me know what time will work for you
guys?

Sherree and her mother and us straight posin' in front of the chapel 

Elder Mthombeni making a special appearance! (Skype) 

The Lea Valley Christmas party... us and Sherree with Santa. #noagelimit

Zone meeting

Elder Metcalf's idea of a sweet zone pic

DA Boiz after a pancake breakfast / Cassi and agapi's baptismal interviews sat morning. I showed them how to play the whipped cream trick and it went everywhere 

aptism selfie plus our relief society president Sis Ojukwu

Sherree's little sister and mother to the right of her. They liked church!

Week 80-December 5, 2016

Week 80-December 5, 2016

J-squad-

Glad to see everyone had a good week! I'm a little jealous about
having dinner at the Daines but Other than that it's good hear that
everything is going well. Congrats to Natalie for winning first place
with her volleyball team!

All is well in London. I have very little time to email so I'm just
going to be brief.

My companions name is Elder Metcalf and he is from Salt Lake City.
He's a stud- very cool guy. Very good leader and is very loving to
everyone especially to the members and the missionaries. I can already
tell I can learn a lot from him and we've had fun together so far so
I'm excited to spend Christmas together.

Sherree passed her baptismal interview and the baptism is this Sunday-
I'm so happy for her. She has changed a lot and you can see such a
difference in her since she has been coming to church and reading the
Book of Mormon. She even told us she had already tried to donate
tithing online but couldn't figure out how when we taught her about
it! She's incredible.

Angela and her sons came to church and are doing pretty well. I still
pray for them so much because Angela is trying to figure out how to
get married so they can be baptised. Also she is still waiting for a
clear answer about the Book of Mormon. So still progress to be made
with her. Funny quote from Cassi (her son) this week: "if Jesus were
alive today there would be a LOT more christians.. " and agapi (the
other son) said in his prayer to God "we know that judas betrayed you
but ... that doesn't mean you failed..." hahaha

Big news: last week before elder mthombeni left, an old investigator
called and asked us to come visit. It was a ghanian family and we
taught them 3 times last week and they loved church on a Sunday!

Zone changed a lot. Should be a whole different ball game this transfer!

Hope y'all have an awesome week. the gospel is true!

Much Love, Elder Jensen

Add caption

Week 79-November 28, 2016

Week 79-November 28, 2016

Hey fam, sounds like a great thanksgiving for the J-squad. Loved the pics mom thanks! Good luck at school for exams Ashley- and sorry to hear youre ill. Way to catch a fish mom!

Well, the time has come for me to say goodbye to Elder Mthombeni- he's leaving tomorrow and guess where he's going... Basildon! I can't believe it! I am very sad to say goodbye to him- he was a great companion and we worked really well together. Missionary life is very strange- you live with someone 24/7 and go through so much together only to leave one day and then go home to different parts of the world. Ill miss Elder Mthombeni, but i know he'll help Basildon ward. And hopefully some of the people I taught.

Ill be receiving Elder Metcalf- i dont know him very well yet but I am excited to work with him and learn from him. We have a lot of work to do here in the zone. 

Sherree came to church again and is getting ready for her baptism in 2 weeks! the only hiccup may be her family and her job that requires her to work on sundays sometimes. pray that she can find a new job if you can! she wants to keep the sabbath day holy. 

Angela and her whole family got really sick this weekend but they are also doing well. she is worried she wont be able to get married before christmas cause Paulo is leaving the country in a week or two and the offices are busy. so her baptism may have to be postponed... im sure the Lord will provide a way though. the boys are doing as good as ever!

Mom, i got your package! Thank you so much for the christmas tree..... i love the christmas tree with the days on it and the chocolates so much :) thank you so so much!!!

I love spending christmas here on mission because I get to speak to people about Christ all day every day. i love being a missionary and i love this area, i am so grateful i get to stay another transfer! The church is true and worth any and all the opposition we may get for being disciples of Christ.. have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Our Albanian friend Gerald!

Thanksgiving after district meeting thanks to Elder Dalley our DL

I thought it was beautiful outside this day so I took a pic from my study desk..

Sherree and her sister Ebony, the clique pic round 2

Obviously I didn't get the memo.. oops 

Week 78-November 21, 2016

Week 78-November 21, 2016

sorry i dont have much time!!! Ill try to write more later but basically all is well. Angela and her boys and sherree came to church and also a guy i found last week from albania! he is a stud. ill tell you more next week. transfers is next week! love you so much.

Elder Jensen

Exchange w Elder Radford! Love him. We were supposed to teach Cristina
with Valentina and her friend but her son Camilo got lost so we just
ate some food instead and then left...

The Lea Valley lads (our flat mates)  all together to email our families. (Taken 2 minutes ago) 

Valentina- our Colombian friend! 

Pawel's motorcycle helmet... 

The "clique pic" as named by Sherree. She came to church again! Second time in a row. 

The two musketeers looking sharp with matching jackets and our badges

Week 77-November 14, 2016

Week 77-November 14, 2016

"whether therefore ye eat, or drink, do all to the glory of God."

What a weekend! 

I don't have much time left. but i will fill you in on the big stuff.

We travelled to the Hyde Park Visitor's Centre with Christina and her son Camilo this past week and a girl named Valentina who has been helping us out tons. Valentina has been investigating the church for about a year and a half now and her parents wont let her be baptised so she has to wait till she's 18 next year. she speaks spanish and is a fantastic missionary so she is a huge help- we would be done for without her! we took them to the VC to show them the Restoration movie because she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith.of course, we watched it in spanish so it was fun to try understanding it all. my spanish has been improving a lot but it still needs a lot of work. after watching it, my heart was so full. i dont know what happened but as it finished i felt very emotional. i know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Not becuase the actor was good or because the way they depicted him in the movie; because of what he did and how it has directly blessed our family and my life specifically. It was a special and very powerful feeling. cristina and camilo loved it and she felt much happier to know more about his life. camilo said to me in the restroom that "yo creo en mormon." or something along those lines. what a stud.

we bought some stuff, went to Angela's house early saturday morning, and as the boys were waking up made American chocolate chip pancakes (i had promised them i would make them some since its one ofthe few things i can make) eggs, bacon, and sausages. the funniest thing was angela coming into the kitchen every 3 seconds to make sure we were doing everything right... she wouldnt leave us alone! we kept telling her to go and lay down or relax and let us cook but she was always right up in our grill. it was awesome though. she came to church again this sunday and had a good time. our gospel principles class was on baptism and it was sooooo good. dispelled all sorts of false doctrines and just went so hard on the truth iof the matter. our investigators loved it. angela even agreed with the age of accountability now too! which is great news!

then to top it off, pawel made a feast for us on sunday afternoon.. it was absolutely delicious. he also passed the sacrament for the first time on sunday and it was such a great feeling watching him do that. what a great man. 

One of our investigators, sherree (you may remember me mentioning her) said all week she wasnt sure if she could come to church. she was waiting to see if someone picked up her shift on sunday. then, after telling me day after day she didnt know, on sunday morning she texted me early in the morning saying she had to go to work and couldnt come to church. i was so sad. then lo and behold as we sat in sacrament meeting, she strolls through the front door. she told me she had known since monday that she could come but she had been messing with us just for fun. my goodness. 

i love these people we are working with. this work is true! love you guys so much. thanks for the emails each week. be missionaries however you can!

Love,

Elder Jensen

The cutest little Colombian boys ever. Jose Daniel and Juan Carlos! 

Cristiana, Valentina, and Camilo  (left to right) at the VC

Pawel's 5 star dinner 

Pawel and Sister Joanna plus her son Joshua 

Us in the kitchen with Angela!

Week 76-November 7, 2016

Week 76-November 7, 2016

Hola familia!

This week we taught Christina and Fernando again and gave them a date
in December to be baptised and they accepted it. We also got to teach
Angela's family a couple more times. I love these two families so
much- in our lesson with Christina and Fernando, Christina said the
closing prayer and after finishing, she cried. The Spirit was very
strong as she prayed- for her family, about the Book of Mormon, and
about her family moving to London.

We taught Angela a few more times and one of our lessons was the plan
of salvation and we drew it out on the white board she has in her
living room- the boys loved it and understood very well.

The weather is getting very cold very fast- it's freezing! but life is
very good. I know this church is true and my love for the Book or
Mormon is getting stronger and stronger every day that I read it. I
just want to take my testimony and throw it at all our investigators
and make them all know exactly what I know- too bad it doesn't work
like that. I just pray every night so hard that they will all come to
know what I know is true for themselves so they can experience the
same joy and direction the gospel gives me.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Jensen

Elder Mthombeni and our friend Valentina who helps us tons with all of our Spanish speaking friends

Week 75-October 31, 2016

Week 75-October 31, 2016

Hello family! 

thanks for the emails. loved hearing about all the volleyball games, performances, halloween festivities, soccer games, and science conferences.

lots to say ill get straight to it

Pawel got confirmed on sunday (last week was stake conference thats why it took so long) and because elder mthombeni's throat was sore, i confirmed him. I hadnt gotten a chance to look at the wording youre supposed to say but i think the spirit gave me confidence and the words seemed to come out and then the blessing was a touching spriitual experience for me. i felt a portion of what Heavenly Father felt about him and all the sacrifices and changes he had made to follow the feelings he had that had led him to this point. i usually never remember and of the things i say in blessings but this time i remembered everything long enough to write them down while sitting in sacrament meeting. i gave it to the member who speaks both polish and english and she said she would translate it for Pawel. he was called as a ward missionary after church- he came out of bishops office and was grinning and looked so happy when he walked up to us and told us he was a missionary now hahaha. what a stud! 

ill have to be shorter with this- other miracle was that this week we taught sheree again and then she texted me out of the blue one day and said she couldnt accept our beliefs and be baptised and wanted to sever contact.  i texted and called and prayed and eventually her heart was softened enough to let us meet her on saturday. it turns out she had read tons of anti mormon material on the internet. we felt like book of mormon prophets exhorting and persuading and pleading will all the energy of our hearts. she had previously read up to 1 nephi 4 and told us she felt peaceful and calm- and that the whole day after reading she had felt happy! so happy she kept telling her sister. i think this was why we were so persistent in not letting her go. the great news is that she is doing well again and reading still and still willing to meet with us! without a doubt i know it was an answer to our prayers.

another sweet thing! Angela came to church with all 3 of her boys!!! the hilarious thing was that i called her sunday morning an hour before church starts because she had told us not to come to their house to make sure they came like we did the last time. when i called her, she just told me they werent coming. i was SO heartbroken cause we had been teaching her this past week and everything was going so well. then she called me back a few seconds later and said laughing, "see you in an hour- were getting ready" i couldnt believe it. and sure enough, they came and ive never seen such a beautiful sight :) angela even wore a dress- the one concern she had with coming to church is that she didnt like wearing skirts and felt uncomfortable wearing trousers. she said "when God asks you to do something you can always do it." when i commented on her dress. what a champ. this past week agupe (her 9 year old son) taught us all about the great apostasy, the priesthood, and jospeh smith and the golden plates and peter james and john giving joseph the priesthood. it was incredible- he had been studying the pamphlet we gave him. 

another funny story/ miracle combined was that fernando's wife and son came to church after teaching them again this week. she texted me at 8 sunday morning and said they didnt know about the clocks going back an hour but they were already waiting for us. hahaha so we went to church extra early with them. 

our friend Kofi is off to ghana today. he came to church on his own yesterday as well. we went to his familys church after our church service as well and let me tell you that was something. i was the ONLY white person in the whole meeting. and it was a pentecostal- ish ghanian church. one day ill tell you more about it. what an experience. the big dude singing and dancing came up the stairs and came to me and grabbed my hand and brought me down to the stage and so i had to dance a bit (the crowd loved it.. im not sure if its cause theyd never seena white dude at their church or cause my dance moves were so bad hahah)

anyways thats already super long so ill stop there. mlc and zone meeting this past week were great. we made trainings that the zone received really well and we hope it will help. there are lots of young missionaries in our zone and so we trained on the basics of finding. 

I got an email or two lately from companions and other friends from the mission who are home now and it has made me realize how glad i am that im a missionary. I love the Lord and I am proud to wear His name. the gospel is true! 

Love,

Elder Jensen

Zone meeting November 2016

MLC

Random chicks we found in the underground who took Halloween to a whole new level

zone meeting pics

Agupe's drawings during our lesson!

Cass; Angela's 11 year old son. He was wearing an LA shirt

Angela's fam at church! They looked so nice all dressed up we decided to take a fresh pic

the fog this morning

Elder Abreu; one of my flat mates!

Week 74-October 24, 2016

Week 74-October 24, 2016

Hey fam!

We have very little time to email.. But that's okay because we had a
great lesson today. Last night we went out street contacting for about
3 hours trying to stop by some people on the ward list nobody knows
about as well in an area we've never been to. As we were finally on
our way out of the area and after finding only rejection I stopped a
girl crossing the street. She was in her 20's and English but of
african descent. Long story short, she said she hadn't been to church
in a long time and felt like she needed to start going again. That she
felt like it was time for her to find God again. So we scheduled to
meet her the next day at the church and today we had a lesson and it
went so well. I felt the Spirit as she told us how that very day I had
stopped her, she had been thinking how she wanted to pull away from
her friend circle because they were going down a different road than
she wanted to (partying a lot) and she wished she had a way out or a
reason to take a different direction. She then told us she knew if she
tried to seek God more she would have he confidence in herself to be
herself and make the decisions she wanted to make. That was just one
of many lessons this past week that I felt the spirit during. I know
that our Father lives and he knows His children and if we have faith
in him, he can work miracles like the one that allowed us to meet
Sherree.

I love you guys! Thanks for all of the emails and support. I feel like
I still don't know what I'm doing but I'm just happy to be a
participant in the Lords work. Hurrah for Israel. Don't have many pics
This week but I will attach some.

Love,
Elder Jensen

The before pic for elder Mthombeni's haircut Hahahahahah

Week 73-October 17, 2016

Week 73-October 17, 2016

Pawel's Baptism

what a great week. Pawel got baptised and it was an amazing experience. i think ive told you a lot about him but he has changed and is visibly much happier and more confident and is always doing things for other people. I love him- he has taught me many valuable lessons. I will have to tell you more about him one day at home but his story is incredible. He is so sensitive to the Spirit and so dedicated to doing what he believes is right. After receiving the Book of Mormon, he read it from cover to cover in one night and knew that it was true. Different things in his life stopped him from being baptised though and so he stopped going to church for some time. later he was divorced and life took him to England. He got in contact with the missionaries and the rest was history. He quit smoking in one day- he went from smoking 40 cigarretes a day to 0 in one day. then, he stopped drinking alcohol (he used to drink quite a bit every night) after we taught him. he prayed, and that was it- he didnt drink one more time. He is always serving the people around him, and has a rock solid testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and most of all of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. He is amazing. I am so grateful to God for the chance to have been able to be a small part of his journey. 

Besides that, we got news for transfers and i will be staying here in Lea Valley with Elder Mthombeni for another transfer. I am happy with this news and excited to spend another transfer with him. He is a great missionary. 

I love the Lord and I love the people here in Lea Valley. Last night I travelled out to Stratford (where the olympics where a few years ago) and interviewed a Nigerian woman and her 9 year old daughter for baptism. The 9 year old's answers to the interview questions were really touching. her faith was inspiring! It made me think of Benjamin. When i asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer she got quiet and her face changed a little. she said she felt a little bit "broken" inside when she thinks of Him being beaten and whipped and put on the cross but that she felt very grateful and said she loved Him because he suffered for our sins. I know that He loves us and that His sacrifice was part of Heavenly Father's plan for us. 

thanks for all of the emails as usual! i love you guys so much... I can't believe how much it seems everyone has grown up and I am always praying for you all. 

love,

Elder Jensen

This is Pawel Gabinski. Sunday was incredible and was a day that I will never forget. I love this man. what a great experience it has been to teach him and to see him take this step. 

Week 72-October 10, 2016

Week 72-October 10, 2016

guess who's back!

Hey guys sorry i didnt email last week! But all is well- it was really funny though to receive a phone call from elder gale one morning and hear him ask me how long it had been since i emailed my mother. sorry mom i wont let it happen again!

i guess theres a ton to say so i dont really know where to start. 

Pawel passed his baptismal interview and as long as all goes well and nothing comes up he will be baptised this sunday. please keep him in your prayers! He doesnt understand much english; only polish so we teach him with polish people to help translate but its hard on to go to church cause he doesnt understand much.that is a concern on his mind but he will be alright. He has a stronger testimony than anyone i have taught. 

fernando and his family are not progressing much because its difficult to teach them well. he has a weird work schedule and we need more spanish speakers to translate. they are also busy with lots of things having to do with moving to a new country and cant find a school for camilo still. we played football recently with camilo though one day in the park and it was good fun and we feel it will help the family as well. 

koffi is a young man from ghana who we have been teaching for a few weeks now. he came to church last week with his whole family (mom dad and sister) and again this week alone and is progressing pretty well also. he understands the gospel well and has a lot of faith. we had to pull the blankets off of him the sunday morning of GC though cause he wasnt getting out of bed.. reminded me of my seminary days hahaha so at times he's a little low on commitment but his intentions are really good. my only fear is that he leaves to ghana soon after his baptismal date (the 29th of october) so we wont be able to meet with him after that. 

we had a miracle saturday night- during pawel's baptismal interview, i took the district leader's (conducting the interview) companion and we went out on the main street and were street contacting when Elder Marin stopped a man who spoke no english but told us he was christian. we took him to the church and showed him around and used google translate a bit to have a short lesson with him. he liked it and said he'd come to church the next morning and he did! but the crazy part is that he speaks farsee- the language of persia and theres only one person in the ward who speaks that as well but it turns out they knew each other but hadnt seen each other for 10 years. we will be teaching him soon with the man in the ward. what a miracle. 

another miracle this week. while on exchange with on e of the elders in our flat, we got on a bus and i sat in the back next to a young woman and started talking to her. then anotehr woman who was more middle aged got on and sat nearby. the young woman wasnt interested so i started talking to the other woman across the aisle and she eventually said she would be happy for us to visit and share our message but warned me that she wouldnt want to make any commitments. so that saturday we went and taught her and her 2 sons; Agupe and Cass (9 and 11). it was a wonderful lesson. the woman; whose name is Angela funny enough, said she didnt like the church she used to go to and wanted to find one centered on jesus and that her family could go to and stay with. then she also said she had dreams often of running away from commitment with God but that she felt she was just waiting for the right place to commit. so sunday morning we went to her house and travelled with them to church and they loved it! they even stayed for a baptism after church. i asked cass what he thought of the baptism and he said he liked it; then said he wanted to be baptised too! hahahaha i just smiled and told him we'd talk to his mom about it this week. what a stud. 

which brings me to the last thing because this is super long. alex boye's mother has been getting taught here in lea valley for a month or two now by the sister missionaries and she got baptised on sunday- alex boye flew in and performed the baptism! so we had him in our lessons and classes that day at church and then elder Mthombeni joined him in the font to help lift his mother out of the water because she had a stroke and doesnt have full control over some parts of her body. So we got to hang out a bit with him and he is hilarious. a really great guy as well- he did a devotional at hyde park that evening which was packed and everyone loved it except for Pawel. Hahahahaha pawel didnt like it that much. 

My love for the gospel has just continued to grow these past couple of weeks. i am amazed at how everything has just increased my faith and love for the Saviour as well. everything we have and do in the church is because of and about Him and I am so grateful I'm learning that here on my mission. What a blessing it is to have His gospel. I know Jesus Christ is our Saviour and friend and i treasure every day i have to serve Him.

I love you all and hope you have amazing weeks! 

Elder Jensen

Post zone meeting with the sick Maserati 

The London North Zone 

Koffi and his family. He's the one to the left of Elder Mthombeni 

No explanation needed :) 

Camilo (Fernando's son) after playing some football! (Soccer) 

Dinner with Pawel and sister Dabrowska (the polish sister in our zone who helps us teach Pawel) at a polish restaraunt in town.

Alex Boye!