Week 52-May 23, 2016

Week 52-May 23, 2016

"Me Lavem Yu" (I Love You in Vanuatu)

Hi!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! 

In the booklet ann and matt sent me of the jensen mission stories theres a picture of grandma and grandpa Jensen and their 6 kids in 1996 ( the year i was born) and i couldnt believe how young Dad looks in it! i showed it to ELder Withers and we were shocked at the realization that if we have kids when we are in our early 20's then that means in a couple of years and WOAH i feel so young i cant even imagine that!!!!!!! and here we are 24 years later!

so monday at the end of our pday we decided to go down to the gym for an hour and just work off some stress and let off some steam and try to give ourselves some kind of outlet so i ran 5 miles in under 40 minutes and it felt great!! elder withers hit the weights hard. we ar probably going to do the same this week.

tuesday was crazy. we had an exchange with the cambridge elders and i was with Elder Walker, a guy from Provo Utah who went to byu and played clarinet in the band and is 6'7". great guy. love him. we had a ton of fun and did a lot of street contacting. met some really interesting people. one was a woman who had 8 miscarraiges and then a daughter after all of them. she was not interested at all but i left feeling like i learned a lot and had gained a glimpse of a unique life's experience that gave me a little more wisdom. those kind of instances are why missionaries are far more mature when they get home i think. (present company excluded ill always be immature) all this woman wanted was to have a child and although it took so much time and pain and heartbreak eventually she had a daughter and i could feel how much she loved this child- it was a whole lot. SHoutout to the best mom in the world for loving me so much she sent me a package #hallelujah. Love you mom! that evening we taught Joseph in mcdonalds but instead of teaching him he told us it was his bday and bought us food. then a homeless 19 year old from scotland over heard me and asked me something about what i said and joined the convo and told us all about his life story. his parents had serious problems and tried to get rid of him as a young baby and that left him with physical disabilities and then he was homeless as a young teenager and came down to essex and was working but got evicted from his temporary home and as a result didnt have an address and lost his job. the member who was with us bought him a meal (which he really appreciated and Joseph admired) and then we had to go cause the member's wife was pregnant and needed him. it was the craziest lesson! learned a lot about how we need toalways remember to do what the Saviour would do isntead of just trying to teach lessons. I think joseph learned a lot in that meeting and so did I. 

then on wednesday the Cambridge elders left and the Bury St. Edmunds elders came! I was with ELder Toa (from Vanuatu). he is from an island of about 200 habitants and basically never left this small island where they farm and climb trees and pick coconuts and eat only what they grow until he came to LONDON and his whole world changed. He has so much faith- miracles just follow him! he almost couldnt come on his mission cause his boat broke before he was supposed to leave and he prayed and then a boat came to his island out of nowhere and he was able to get his flight. this guy is inspiring- so humble, so faithful, poor english, and full of love. we basically street contacted and tracted for all 7 hours and didnt find a single person who wanted to listen. it was pretty tough. i learned to love this elder so much though. it was a great day. we made pasta that night and ate our sorrows away and ended the day on a great note. then, thursday president and the AP's came to Ipswich and we met as a zone for a special training. it was great. we basically just had a dinner appointment with some members and our ward mission leaders correlation meeting that evening. then on friday we taught an investigator named Nathan. he had looked up tons of anti mormon stuff and hes a really smart dude who likes to debate and prove people wrong so that was an intense 2 hour lesson. emotions were high and the stuff he tried to pull on us at times made me pretty angry. It was clear he was not sincere like he tried to make himself out to be and that also didnt help me stay calm. we kept our cool and handled it pretty well i think and i was grateful for elder withers. he came to church yesterday by the way but i dont know if he'll progress. we then did lots of service for 2 different families that afternoon and evening. good to sweat a little and get my hands dirty. 

saturday we taught 3 angolans in the park over a picninc lunch we made (elder withers promised them we'd cook for them if they met with us). it was cool. we made salmon, boiled potatoes, and baked beans. delicious. they seem pretty good and we'll see them again this saturday. then we went finding and had pizza at the chapel and then taught a filipino lady named Lyn. her husband from Bosnia (i think) sat on the ground with their daughter as we taught her and listened in on our lesson about the restoration. she accepted elder withers' invitation to be baptised and we gave her a chapter of the BOM to read (2 nephi 32) and set an appointment for sunday evening the very next day. she texted us sunday afternoon and said she had read the book and it wasnt for her so we didnt need to come over anymore. one of those frustrating moments where you know she didnt actually read the chapter and decide it wasnt for her. something else must have happened to dissuade her from pursuing it any further. oh well. someday she'll come around.

sunday we had church and nathan came as  isaid before. marcel should be baptised this weekend and thatll be great!  we also ate at a brazillian family's home sunday afternoon and absolutely STUFFED ourselves... it was delicious. 

Thats my week in a nutshell! elder withers and i have so much fun together. its almost hard to believe sometimes how similarly we think and how similar our humor is so we are always laughing our heads off. its good to have a comp who you get along so well with and have lots of fun with. they definitely arent always that way! 

so good to hear from you all! i hope you like the new format of my email. hopefully this will help me remember more things one day. journal writing is so difficult with all the call in reports we have to do at night. 

mom... I GOT THE PACKAGE! me and elder withers are both waiting to open our packages and we are so excited. thank you so much i cant wait to see whats inside. And as for a suit................. we may go suit shopping next monday but im not confident ill buy one yet so maybe hang tight and if i buy one you can reimburse me? its about a 50/50. we'll see. 

Ill send some pics too. Love you all so much!

-Elder Jensen

Me and Elder Walker by a Roman wall in Colchester from the ruins of when it was the capital of England and the Romans owned the city.  No big deal 

Elder Toa from Vanuata. 

The bury st Edmunds elders in our flat on our exchange

Who looks better with glasses?

Elder withers sneaking into my bed when I turn my back

Week 51-May 16, 2016

Week 51-May 16, 2016

Primero semana de Nuevo transfer

Good morning to you Californians!

Marcel did not get baptised... He had a family emergency come up so he
rescheduled for the 28th. Should still be fine though.

We taught a man from Portugal named Jose twice this week that I talked
to about two weeks ago and he came to church and is on date to be
baptised on the 25th of June! I am praying he will make it. A lot of
it will come down to the members who speak Portugese fellow shipping
him. We also taught a guy named Matthew twice this week who I talked
to on an exchange a couple of weeks ago but on Saturday he texted me
and said he had prayed aBout the Book of Mormon like we asked him to
but felt his answer was not to change faiths. He's Catholic and he
said he felt it was true as he read last week but that after praying
decided not to go forward anymore. He's 20 and from Nigeria and works
as a barber and he was a cool guy so I was really disappointed and sad
to lose him. I don't think the Spirit gave him his answer- I think he
has other reasons that make him wary of joining our church but
confused those feelings for his answe. Hard to say but I hope in the
future he comes around someday.

Elder withers and I have had a fun week with a lot of work. My
testimony of life being a test grew this week. I feel that the
obedience we show to the first 2 greatest commandments is what will
decide our destiny- how much we love God and how much we love others.
Not often what I think of when I think about obedience but it was a
good lesson to learn.

Anyways, love you all so much. This church is #true so
#keepthecommandments #prosperintheland!

I'm excited to hear about Becca and how that goes! Thanks for all the
emails and pictures this week!!!!!

Elder Jensen

Our new district. Featuring elder withers' and I's new companionship ties 

Just chillin'

Week 50-May 9, 2016

Week 50-May 9, 2016

wow it has been so long!

Just kidding its only been two days! 

i dont have a lot of time to email and not a lot to report but some great news....

Elder withers and i are staying together for another transfer here in colchester!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!! im super glad for another 5 weeks (a shorter transfer than usual) with him here. the zone has changed a lot so we are excited to see some great new things and get more energy to do big things here. 

by the way, this is elder chronisters last transfer! holy moley. feels strange to think elder withers and i will hit our one year marks together and then my trainer will go home a year after we were together. awesome news... ELDER OAKS is coming to our mission to speak to us in the beginning of June!!! exciting. 

last week we had MLC and Zone Meeting which both went excellently. it was especially nice to see elder silva and some old friends at MLC and see that theyre doing well. zone meeting went great too. basically in zone meeting we just have a couple of trainings (one done by us and one by the sister training leaders) and then an activity, some accountability stuff for our month and setting goals for the next month, and then we had 4 missionaries in our zone who are going home who bore their testimonies for us. it was great. 

lots of work last week and we are really excited cause it looks like things are picking up in our area. Marcel is getting baptised this Saturday! he has been getting tuaght for a long time- he was almost done being tuaght when we arrived but we are so happy for him. we found a few new people last week to teach and saw two of them today and they both went well. one was a barber from nigeria and another was a middle aged man from Porto Portugal. we need new people to teach in our area very badly so they were miracles!

went out to cambridge again yesterday and worked with the elders there. super fun- its a beautiful city. me and elder walker found a girl from ontario who is studying to be an optomitrest like unlce matt. i told her he liked his job and she was glad hahaha. shes catholic but seems really interested to meet with them this thursday! hopefully that goes well also. i realised i never say much about the people we meet or teach so im going to try to change that so you see a little more about what im doing.

anyways times up but love you all so much!!!! it was truly a wonderful experience to see you all again last sunday. seeing you all fills me with so much joy.

mom, im still thinking of things i could use but i think that im doing great at the moment and i dont need anything. if there is something i need i can usually find it somewhere and just buy it. but i will let you know if there is anything.

love you all so much. have a J-tastic week!!!!!

#jsquad

-elder Jensen

p.s. illl send some pics from my ipad

p.p.s. bishop nicholls in Basildon got released!!! i wouldnt be surprised if he moves to america where his kids are...

The Mission Leadership Council last week! So many of these missionaries are going home the next couple of months. 

Me and elder Muchmore of Wyoming on an exchange sneaking into old chapels 

Our zone last month! It's gunna change a lot tomorrow but yea... 

Mother's Day Skype!!-May 8, 2016

Mother's Day Skype!!-May 8, 2016

Week 49-May 2, 2016

Week 49-May 2, 2016

Innit Bruv

The week before I get to see you all again! I am so excited. I feel as if you've all grown up too much and I wont recognise you all besides mom and dad. I cannot wait though. It still isn't real to me! I feel like Christmas was just yesterday... the time has literally just flown by. Colchester is good. and we had some miracles happen this week, including one of our investigators asking us if he could get baptised on the 14th at church. He has been coming for months and taught everything he was just working through his concerns. his name is Marcel and he's a university student from Nigeria! Good guy with a lot of faith. I hope that he is able to go through with it just fine. We reached some of our goals this week as a zone and our monthly baptismal goal which I am humbled by and really grateful to the Lord for. Dad, your story this week really hit me hard and I still don't really know what to think because I have been thinking a lot about that lately. we just work and work and if people aren't READY to be baptised within a few weeks, we are told to move on. we are here to harvest, and if people aren't ready to be harvested then we have to move on and find those that are. that's what we are told anyways. I'm not surprised theres some friction now with Yewei and Amanda. the missionaries may need to detatch themselves from the teaching until they are ready to be baptised... I don't know.. anyways, the wonderful thing about missionary work is that I am learning so much every day. and serving other missionaries as well just accelerates that learning and growth so much. for that I am very very grateful! although at times I worry that I am not making enough of a difference in helping the missionaries. dad.. any advice from your mission for me? I think the key to helping anyone is to love them- with charity, a.k.a. perfect love. if you pray and serve until you develop that charity, then you will 1) know and 2) be willing to do what is best for that person. that's why mom and dad are such wonderful parents- they love us and then because of that they know whats best for us and they aren't afraid of offending us so they tell us what we need to change! I appreciate your examples so much mom and dad. you guys are seriously the best and I love you so much. 

this week we had a few exchanges, which was fun! it also made us really busy and we worked our socks off all week. from 6:29 when elder withers and I are in the gym downstairs running and working out until 10:30 when we kneel to pray together before bed we are always busy. I struggle to write in my journal enough and it gets very tiring but so rewarding. I know that the Lord is helping missionaries because to do what we do day after day is impossible without some kind of help. I know personally that I couldn't do this without heaven's help. thank goodness! we need it.

Let's see... a few short experiences from the week. we taught some good lessons but best of all we found a few new people to teach! a guy named Nathan I stopped early in april- I called him up randomly and he picked up and was interested in meeting now and so elder withers and another missionary went to the appointment cause we were on an exchange and they said it went really well. I'm excited to see him this week. also, a former investigator guy named Edward elder withers called while I was sick met with us this week and hes good too. we're excited for these people. then yesterday we were fasting and we were really tired and hungry and feeling super weak and physically sore from running and playing football on Saturday but we persevered and sunday afternoon spent a few hours knocking the doors around former investigators and we tried the address of this one lady supposedly named carie. it was one of the complexes that have an intercom so when we asked through the microphone if it was carie, they let us in and we met these Romanians who weren't carie but had gone to an LDS church for a whole year in Romania and want to meet to learn English and come to church- it was a miracle. I'm glad we decided to keep working I think the Lord blessed us. by the way, elder withers and I ran 6 days of the week last week and worked out- we are trying to lose all the fat weve gained on our missions. 

I don't have too much time but it was so amazing to get those pictures and emails this week- I love to read each of your updates and know how everything is going. I am so excited to skype and love you all. have a fantastic week! ill send some pics from my ipad. I know that this gospel is true and it is the key to a happy and fulfilling life. The Saviour is the key to ultimate peace even though it is still not easy to have faith all the time. The church is such an amazing blessing!!! bring all your friends to church. its a good place for them to be. theres my missionary invitation to you guys this week.

Elder J

p.s. 

p.s. we are going to try to skype at 8 in the evening our time. that means for you guys, 1 oclock in the afternoon so you can get home from church. we cant do any later cause we get 40 minutes and we need to be home at 9. should be fine- let me know if theres an emergency or for some reason that wont work. thatll make it work with elder withers' family as well. 

p.p.s congrats on the award mom! I'm sending you a card today that will hopefully get there by sunday but us kids are the result of all your work and love! don't forget that we will do our best to be your awards. if you know what I mean. if youre pickin up what I'm putting down. if youre smellin what I'm steppin in. you da best. love you!