Week 39-February 22, 2016

Week 39-February 22, 2016

Ash- is this the email you are using now? you keep asking me to send
it to you but i thought that i was already! dad, if she has a
different one now i will need to send it to her new address too now i
guess.

Anyways, Mom im still waiting for those pictures!!!!! now that you
said you have some time and your laptop is fixed, i would love it if
you sent them soon! buut no wrries i know youre super busy. Sounds
like everyone had a pretty awesome week! Dad- this sounds like a huge
project... you asked everyone to drop everything and now everyone in
the lab is working on the same thing? thhat sounds crazy! and i
totally agree with what you said- i had no idea what you did at work
until i started working there. I still feel bad for falling asleep a
couple of times but i had so much fun and learned so much working with
you. Yeram told me about her mission call, how awesome!!!!!!
Zimbabwe?!?! we are teaching a couple people from zimbabwe ( they call
it 'zim') and im gunna tell them about that. but hold the
phone.................

 JOSH GOT ENGAGED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!!? THAT HOSER DIDNT
EMAIL ME THIS WEEK HE BETTER BE REPENTING AND EMAILING ME ASAP!!! what
the flip!!!!!! august!?!? thats nuts!!!!!!!!! he must be so
happy!!!!!!!! and man ill bet the coltons are so excited too!!! he is
so in love... he always tells me about her. i figured it was gunna
happen soon.

well, nothing i have to report sounds nearly as interesting anymore
after all the news but i will do my best.

my new comp's name is Elder Silva and he is a convert from Brazil.
Amazing guy- hes been out for about a year and 4 months and he is a
really amazing missionary. I have been awoken to the reality that
converts really do make amazing missionaries. they know how to connect
with investigators and they always have a strong testimony in every
principle and commandment of ht e gospell cause they had to get one or
they wouldnt have joined the church- it has been such a blast working
together. mom, elder hesen's first name is Jake if you wanna add Jake
Hesen on facebook hahaha.

Lydia- so true. you teach people in the craziest places and often the
people you teach are kind of crazy as well. it takes some time to
learn how to be bold and ask people to maake the enviornment friendly
to the Spirit but you learn to just do it. people will respect you if
you are bold with them- so be bold with people especially young men
cause they better be keeping thier distance anyways.

So cool to hear that ashley is in the lab and back to work and im
amazed at how many times they have asked her to speak... thats cool
though she is probably super inspiring and still mega RM mode. Still
got a red hot testimony- theyve gotta make good uuse of it! have you
seen christie or portia or any of your old friends since youve gotten
back? what are they up to these days? how soon are you going back to
BYU again? i am so forgetful. I love you though and wish you the best
in your adjusting. if you have to, you could make a bunch of desserts
and send them to me if you are really craving some way to serve. i
guess i wouldnt mind if it would help you.

thank you all SO much for the valentines day
package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  funny story... i was in the
cultural hall of the hyde park chapel on the morning of transfers
cause i was asked to stay wihth my companioin and make sure everyone
got their new companions and left to their areas and then a visitors
centre sister brought me the package and i could tell she was kind of
hiding a smile and i was a little confused till i looked down at the
package and saw all the hearts mom drew on the front.... man i was
emberassed but hey whatever- the important part is that i loved the
cards and the
chocolate, right?! Thanks so much you guys.

mom, glad to hear you had a safe trip and got to see so much family.
are grandma and grandpa going to be alright?

also, dad, is grandpa jensen doing well? how is he and his new wife?
do the traynors and stuart and brandy still have them over for dinner
pretty often?

Love you!!!!!! The Book of Mormon is true- whatever anyone says about
the church or whatever questions and doubts you or anyone may have,
that is the one truth that resolves them all. It is true, and because
of that, everything falls into place. it is really the answer for
everything- i dont know why more people dont open their eyes and their
hearts and read it. the adversary really does have such a strong hold
on the people's hearts. and they dont even realise it- it is so sad.

Hope you all have an amazing week! i will be praying for yall!

yours truly,
Elder Jensen

sorry no pics this week...

Week 38-February 16, 2016

Week 38-February 16, 2016

Companion #4, transfer #7

Hey fam, it sounds like all is well in Canada and Arcadia and Australia!

We got our news for transfers, I'm staying in Basildon and I will be
getting a new companion today (obviously) who I will take back to
Basildon from London tomorrow. His name is Elder Silva and he is from
Brazil! Remember Nagaret and her husband and 2 kids?  Elder Silva will
be able to teach them in Portugese and help them learn English! It's
perfect. Also, there is another family in our zone close by who speak
Portugese and are preparing for baptism as well so he will be able to
interview them and help them as well. I am really excited to serve
with him, I knew him briefly in Hyde Park and he is really hard
working. Maybe I will learn some more Spanish and some Portugese from
him.

Our zone will be changing completely- every companionship (we have 9)
is changing except for one and three will be brand new greenies so
it's gunna be crazzzzzy. Elder Silva and I will have our work cut out
for us, but that's good cause it'll make for a really fun exciting
transfer hahaha.

Investigator wise, Christiana wants to be baptised now!!!!! We set a
date for her and she is set on it. March 13th! Which just happens to
be the weekend that Elder Hesen is coming back to London with his
sister to visit so he might be coming!!! BECAUSE..... Vladamir,
Leonardo, and Andrea are also set on being baptised that same day!!!!
(Nagarets family). We had a lesson with them and the Portugese family
who teaches them with us and at the end, Leonardo (the 8 year old son)
said a prayer while we all knelt together and it was really special. I
could feel the Spirit and knew that praying as a family on your knees
is what makes Families so close and what more could anyone want then
to be with their family forever. It made me think of all the times we
would kneel and hold hands to pray together and how I never
appreciated what a difference that made in our home and my childhood.
I love the memories I have from home.

The four of us missionaries spoke in sacrament meeting and it went
really well! We had a mini zone conference in London last week and
Elder Hesen and I gave a training to the two zones. Oh, guess what?!
My trainer, elder Chronister, is an assistant to the president now and
he will be doing call in reports with me next transfer for our zone so
I'll be calling and talking to him every single week now hahahahaha.
This week was crazy and super busy but I just can't think of anything
else to say cause I always forget everything. But it was good.

Sorry all I can talk about anymore is missionary stuff that isn't that
exciting to anyone besides missionaries here in ELM I suppose. But all
is well- this week will be crazy though.

I am glad to hear that grandma and grandpa are doing ok. That is rough
that they can't bend or lift anything though. Also, glad to hear that
Dad came through and send you the roses. Job well done Dad. Man, the
kids sound like they are just tearing it up and rocking everything!!
They're making me feel like I was such a loser in highschool... All I
did was mess around with my friends and do stupid things all the time.
It is so amazing to hear all the good things you are each up to
though. Keep taking opportunities to grow and increase in your faith!
You will need the experience one day. I love you all so much. Have a
fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

Week 37--February 8, 2016

Week 37--February 8, 2016

I'm still waiting for some pictures of Ashley and the fam!!! Also, What happened to ashleys nose? And everything you said about Ashley and the people she knew in Santiago rings so true. She is the most loyal and loving friend. I remember saying something about one of her friends and then she unleashed a flippin storm on me and put me right in my place. Typical Taylor. I passed my driving test! And according to missionaries here, the British license which I'll have from now on is going to make my insurance way cheaper in the states for the next 20 years or so cause In america anyone can pass a driving test... Here it's actually super difficult! I think the Lord blessed me though and I got a pretty chill test dude. He rebuked me hard for not doing an "emergency stop" the way he wanted me to though LOL. This week we went to MLC (sorry dad I can't remember if I explained what that stood for already but it's the mission leadership council) which was really good because we had some really good councils with president about some new things for the mission. We do tons of exchanges and the general authorities are changing the way they want them to be done and I look forward to trying this new way. Basically the companionship we are doing an exchange with both come into our area and the four of us work in our area all day instead of two being in each area. This is supposed to help the other missionaries learn from the way we do things because our area is supposed to be "the example area." I think it's a good idea but it just means I need to be that much more diligent and make sure our area is always producing. We also had ZTM (hahaha now I'm just using all the abbreviations I can for fun) which is zone training meeting and that was good and I learned a lot from a couple of things that happened during it. Nagaret, the woman who got baptised and whose family arrived from Portugal and we have been teaching, is doing well and her family is so amazing! They have two kids, 8 and 12 a boy and girl respectively and I think of me and ash as kids sometimes but this week we went and kicked a football around with the kids and Vladamir (their dad). Also, we taught them about the word of wisdom, the plan of salvation, and the law of chastity this week and it all went super well. I love them so much! It is such a wonderful family. They came to church but I couldn't sit with them cause I had to play piano for sacrament meeting... #bettergetsomeblessingsforthat 

Christiana is still meeting with us but is still trying to feel "sure" about the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith but I am still praying that she makes a leap of faith and decides to be baptised cause at the moment she is still unsure. She is seriously so golden though. Her answers are like what every missionary wakes up to find out he was dreaming about. We will see. Keep her in your prayers though! The Russian family was busy all week so we couldn't teach them...

This week was a super exciting one for Elder Hesen and I because the zone saw so many miracles- I was just so happy over and over as I heard about them. This is elder Hesen's last week and we have SO many dinner appointments it's absurd. I might put on enough weight to make a second elder Jensen. Us four missionaries are speaking next week and we are each speaking about love.... Cause it's Valentine's Day..... Great topic to speak about as a missionary I'm PUMPED. Cause I'm just speaking about my love for the scriptures PHEW hahahahahahaha. 

Next week (on the 17th) I will be in London at this time to see elder Hesen onto the plane home and pick up my new companion. Love you all so much!  Mom I'm sorry about your laptop, but good luck getting everything done and off to Canada! Tell your parents I said hello and that I am praying for them! Mandy that pistachio and cheesecake sounds so bomb.. Promise me you'll take me there to get some one day? Natalie, I was so jealous when you said you had the whole ice rink to yourselves. That must have been so much fun.. Also, welcome to the braces club. Everyone loves having metal in their mouth! Lydia, you are something else. Keep being awesome. Ashley and dad are so lucky!!! I wanna go to Australia so badly one day. Benjamin, are you gunna run a marathon one day? 26 laps?! That's crazy man! Nice. You're in better shape than I am that's for sure.

I love you guys! I know that the Lord is our one way to find real happiness in such a crazy world. Helaman 5:12 describes it perfectly. if we don't have that foundation, we will be lost in the world. It's not even enough to just be a good person cause the adversary is changing people's perception of what that means and people will crumble to temptation without that foundation. So to you all who have been baptised, keep going and endure to the end! "If ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ and endure to the end, thus saith the Father, ye shall have eternal life." 

Elder Jensen

Me and my very very good friend Elder Leite, who I lived with in Hyde park for 4 1/2 months when I first arrived. This was at MLC and I will only see him once more cause he goes home with Elder Hesen. Love this guy like a brother.

In London on pday last week. Yee

This is Ben who is a recent convert who joined the church four years ago and went on a mission in Australia and now lives in Basildon and goes teaching with us all the time. He's our homie. My yellow tie decided to become a celestial white colour for the picture ..

Showed them the sky garden in London last week. It was pretty tight

Week 36-February 1, 2016

Week 36-February 1, 2016

ASHLEYS HOME AND IM THE ONLY ONE LEFT

Hey fam! I have been waiting with so much excitement for these

emails!!!!!! It's so crazy to hear from everyone and how the week in
chile went! I have no time to email today but all is well. Christiana
did not get baptised which has been worrying and a tough situation. I
went to the temple Saturday though!!! That was incredible. I'll try to
send some pics later if I have time! Love you all so much!!!

Love,
Elder Jensen

Week 35-January 25, 2016

Week 35-January 25, 2016

Hey fam! It snowed here last week! But that's not the most exciting
thing that happened. Nagaret was baptised and her whole family came
and loved it! She was confirmed yesterday by a portugese high
councilman in Portuguese so her family could understand and it was
amazing to see how happy she was. She truly is amazing.

We also had interviews with President and this time, Sister Stevens
also sat down with each missionary in a different room too which was
so nice. They are both incredible people, and I don't know how they do
everything that they do but I know the Lord helps them. Mom, sister
Stevens reminds me so much of you. Anyways it was a good day and it
was really nice to see the whole zone and have some time together and
have one on one time with President Stevens. I told president about
Ashley going home this week!

Christiana was unable to be baptised this past weekend because of a
timing constraint but she will be baptised next Sunday! We are so
excited for her. She knows so many of the members now. She has some
concerns about Joseph smith becaus she saw stuff online. I was
actually really angry this week about all the people who make up stuff
and who work hard to destroy people's faith. If they were good people,
they would be doing it all in order to help people know the truth so
they could be happier- but in reality I don't think any of the anti
Mormon stuff is made in an effort to "help" people. I think their
origin probably all comes from negative feelings on resentment or
bitterness, and that to me is evidence enough that their claims are
baseless. Anyways, I'm worried because there is so much stuff out
there and i hate feeling as if I don't know the "truth" about our
church's early history and things like that. Dad, mom, ash, any
advice? It's no biggie because I know that the Book of Mormon is true.
Nobody could have written it on a farm in the 1820s, that's just
ridiculous. And it has such a power to bring me understanding and
answers to my biggest questions. I love the Book of Mormon and I just
wish I had hours and hours every day to study the scriptures and know
everything there is to know about the gospel. I'm worried too because
I doubt I will even have as much time as I do now to study the
scripture when I go home..

I didn't take my driving test last week because it was at 810 a.m. And
they cancelled everyone's test because of the icy conditions, so I'm
taking it this Wednesday instead.

For my spiritual realisation this week, I have been thinking a lot
about the people who never accept the gospel. Which is most people. I
don't think that Their lives are less effective towards their
spiritual growth or that they will progress less towards their divine
potential then we will, because the Lord knew that this would be the
case, where 99% of His children  would not have the gospel in their
lives here on earth, but He still sent them. I believe that everyone
must still learn so much and their experiences must be so crucial to
their eternal growth, regardless of whether they accept the gospel
here on earth. It's not their one chance- many of them never even have
that one chance! Each child of God has a specific mission here on
earth and will become so much more because of their experience in
mortality, even without the gospel. That being said, their progress
will exponentially increase if they do accept the gospel and perform
the ordinances that will qualify them for further progression. And the
sooner, the better. Although I imagine most people will do that during
the Millenium, unless I'm confused and in reality not many of Gods
children will be exalted. That's a question for another week.

It sounds like yet again, everyone had a killer week!!!!! You all are
just so awesome!!!!! How did I land such a sweet family? By the way,
to answer your question dad when I say "keep reppin the J squad" it
means "keep representing the Jensens so well to the rest of the world"
in other words, or" keep bringing honour to our family" as a Chinese
person might say.

I love you all!

Elder J swizzles

P.s. Lots of pics this week- I'll just send a few probably though.. We
went and visited a castle in Southend for Sister Matthews bday

Nagaret and her family and the two sister missionaries who taught her before we did!

Me and elder nakaimia my Japanese friend!

me and elder Hesen

Week 34-January 18, 2016

Week 34-January 18, 2016

England is cold

Hello family, another week gone! It's so good to hear from each of
you. Ashley!!!!!!!!!!! Only 13 more days?!? Good heavens!! Or as dad
would say, hot dog!!!!!!

Mom, thank you so much for the second Christmas package! That was so
kind of you and I loved it so much. How did Natalie's birthday go?!
What did you do Natalie? I hope it was a blast.

This week we got to see a lot of people and we saw a lot of miracles.
I gained a stronger testimony that when we pray for things and then
work for them and expect God to make it happen, he will make it
happen. This week we hit all of our goals but one! Countless times
this week I found myself praying for all the specific people or things
we wanted to see achieved and then things wouldn't go as planned but
we would just keep working and then right before our eyes God would
place someone or a family that was exactly what we were praying for
but didn't expect to come in such a way. My testimony that this is not
our work but the Lord's was strengthened. I have been thinking a lot
about us and the Lord in missionary work lately. I think that the best
thing we can do is simply be worthy of receiving blessings and seeing
miracles that the Lord is trying to work among us and then the Lord
uses us to do His work. It's like we are a saw and the Master is the
carpenter... The best thing we can do is NOT to trust that we can do
everything on our own cause that gets us nowhere. The best thing we
can do is to make sure our edge is as sharp and as solid as possible
and then align ourselves as well as we can with the wood he wants us
to cut (whatever the Lord wants to do with us.) Sometimes I think
about it as an analogy- if we are on a football team but as the
quarterback we decide to run a totally different play then what the
rest of the team does and the coach tells us to run, things don't go
well at all. He's the coach and we have to be in a position where he
can use us. So instead of focusing on what words I'm going to say to
persuade people to listen to us, I should focus on being exactly
obedient and consecrated and then trusting the spirit to tell me where
to go and what to say.

Christiana is doing so well. She passed her baptismal interview and
even introduced her university friend to us and we are going to teach
her this Tuesday at dinner with Christiana! The Lord has been
preparing her for this for a long time I believe. In gospel principles
class, she basically taught the rest of us the story of Jacob and Issa
and the whole twelve tribes of Israel thing. Nagaret... Wow. This week
her two kids and husband moved from Portugal into Basildon and she got
to see them for the first time in a year. I called her the day they
were supposed to arrive and she answered with a high pitched
"Jensen!!!" Mispronounced as always because she is Portugese hahaha
and ever since they arrived she has been on cloud nine. When we met
her husband it was a sweet, precious moment to me I will not forget.
He is a Catholic and she testified to him and all of us how firmly she
believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is what she
wants to do and she has never really had a relationship with God until
she began reading  the Book of Mormon. He prayed at the end before we
left and in Portugese but I made out "missionaries, important for me
and my family..." He was so sincere and said he would start reading
the Book of Mormon. He originally worried us a lot because he was
really hesitant about his wife wanting to be baptised but now that we
got to meet him in person I think he is softening. We are teaching a
Russian mother who lost her phone earlier this week but showed up to
church anyways and she told us her husband wants to meet us and learn
about the Book of Mormon as well- we got them a Russian copy but we
don't speak Russian so we are in a bit of a dilemma cause the one
member of our ward who can speak Russian is always busy. But yea!!
Super pumped to teach him and their kids too.

Ok so I wanna say something about repentance: I have been pondering
this a lot this week and I feel like I am learning a lot about life
and what a missionary is supposed to do- all we are doing is crying
repentance. but instead of thinking of Samuel the Lamanite yelling at
everyone from a wall about their sins and what not, crying repentance
is merely this: ASKING PEOPLE TO CHANGE! That's all it is! Repentance
is change so if we talk to someone or teach anyone without being bold
and asking them to do something differently to change we are wasting
our time. I used to be scared to ask people to do things like go to
church or make praying and reading scriptures a priority or heaven
forbid telling people they need to get married or stop smoking but now
I realise that the Saviour would do that in a heartbeat and wouldn't
beat around the bush about it either. How I wish I could be the kind
of missionary he would be. But yea. So missionary work is about
changing people to bring their life into harmony with Gods
commandments. Asking them to live "after the manner of happiness."
What better job could I ask for? Crying repentance yo. That's what
it's all about.

Did you guys hear that Blake is going to ASU? Have you guys seen him
recently? How's Johnny doing? Are him and Ben still hanging out all
the time?

Also, I passed my theory (written test portion) driving test this week
and this Thursday I'm taking the real deal test so pray for me!
Hopefully I don't go full American and pull into the right side of the
road... It wouldn't be the first time.

Love you all to the moon and back. I hope you each have a fantastic
week I am always praying for each of you!

Love,
Elder J

Mom can you send this to Sonja and Kirk? This was the last of the captain crunch they sent me for Christmas and I wanted to tell them I was so so so grateful for their package. I don't know their email and I'm the worst at thank you notes but I wanted to make sure they knew I was really grateful. Me and my companion just about fainted when we saw the cereal... British cereal just doesn't even compete with American cereal.

Our Japanese elder!!! This was on an exchange and he wanted to take a pic. Sorry mom I never take pictures anymore I just can't be bothered so I feel bad but I don't have many to send lately...