Week 61-July 25, 2016

Week 61-July 25, 2016

Hiya Family and Friends!!!!!

So I'll save you some suspense....

We got to teach some great Ghanians. Can't go wrong with Africans for sure. They are learning a ton!! They came to church again this week. Oh man those guys never let us down. And they got to hear Elder Burgess give a stellar talk. He talked all a both his conversion and how the gospel meant so much to him. The sprit was really felt as he talked of friends bearing testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel to Him.   

AND we saw both of them on Saturday. We saw them, got down on equal level (taught the lesson on the floor) and taught them the Restoration. The lesson was fantastic. You know how the Spirit is, you can't help but feel it when testifying of Joseph Smith. They asked GREAT questions. Actually reminded me a lot of you Dad and we tried to answer them in the best way. Hey the Spirit did most of the work so that is what counts. 

Oh and we taught a man named Jose. Not sure where he is from. I can't remember right now, BUT we taught him the word of wisdom. He fought it a little, because he is very fond of his wine, but he eventually decided to commit to living the great law of health. We are so excited!!!!  Plus I got to tell him at least 10 times that there is no "wine"ing in the Lord's kingdom. Hahaha oh it was on point. 

More people that we saw!! (Because that is how missionary work goes). Rob and Alex-a kind young couple. I got to teach with elder Cumming (an exchange. That was actually approved)! At the end we all knelt and Rob offered the prayer. The Spirit was incredibly strong. After the prayer we all remained kneeling and Rob said he felt something different. :). YES He felt the spirit he felt the spirit he felt the spirit. That was great to be a part of. Man I love these moments so much. It just reminds me of how important a mission really is and how we really we changing these people's lives. It's not exactly something you get to do every day. Especially not in a great place like England. 

Elder Burgess was able to exchange with Elder Chew who is actually dying right now...poor guy. But learned a lot of wisdom from him! So we shall apply it shortly. 

We owe the sisters an apology. Be used we stole their butter to make pancakes and didn't give them any pancakes. BUT to be fair we give them lifts so we are even. So yes pancakes were made!! We sacrificed the boiled eggs and decided to add some substance to breakfast. I consider it a large success. Except for the time when the elders were unable to catch the pancake mix. And we put so much effort into the throw. Well, toss that is. We tossed the pancake mix off of a 5 story building. BUT to our credit we did attach a handy dandy parachute to it. It floated all the way down. Right past their arms. 

Now that the suspense has been saved for a bit....

TRANSFERS!

Drum roll....we are...staying together!!!  WAHOOO! I am stoked. I am fired up. Well it's just a little bit awkward cuz I told the ward I was leaving...but it's alright now it'll just be a big surprise in Sunday! Don't worry I'll tell you all about it next week. Hopefully.

We are super excited though. Transfers are always an unsure time and it's great to know that Elder Burgess and I can stay together and keep cranking it out. Maybe this is a sign too I need to pick up the British accent. Hmmm. We will see.

So begins Colchizzy part 2. :)


THANKS LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL




(Approved by Colchester sisters. We had to write it. So is the struggle of being a zone leader and having no time to ourself)

Sent from my iPad

Yea so that was written by one of the sisters here. We had to go and tract cause we have to work a certain number of hours on pdays and so we ran out of time to email but love you all! I'm staying in Colchester another 6 weeks. 

Elder Jensen

Week 60-July 18, 2016

Week 60-July 18, 2016

Things are heating up

jay fach! (romanian) its been a great week here and it sounds like its been a great week at home as well. God is good! so excited to hear about Yiewei and Amanda's confirmation. That was one of the things i spoke to President Stevens about in our interviews this week. 

Our zone hit our goal for sacrament meeting attendance and finding!! and there was a baptism in Ipswich ward last saturday which was the cherry on top. It was a miracle that we hit the goals! we got them on the dot and i completely attribute that to everyones prayers and faith and then their hard work. ever since 5 weeks ago at the start of the transfer weve been working towards these goals and now weve hit them and the zone is moving in a great direction. 

couple of miracles:

On an exchange with an italian elder named Elder Botta I had an idea and at the start of the exchange i told him he was going to be the senior companion for the day. He is a very spiritual missionary and extremely hard working. I learned how to follow and trust the Spirit and to focus solely on the work that day. the miracle happened that evening- we had looked at a map, prayed, picked a general vicinity, prayed some more, picked several streets, prayed again, and then picked a couple and narrowed it down to one street that we decided to tract. we went to the street, and in the car didnt feel right about it anymore and so we prayed again and decided to walk up the street to a different street and start there. We ran into some families who invited us to come back another time, and then made our way back to the original street. We had almost finished tracting that street without seeing any incredible success and there were some little kids in the street following us around door to door so we stopped and got back in the car. then i saw this one door and we decided to go and knock it so we got back out of the car and a nigerian man opened in his bath robe and invited us back! during that convo a woman walked up to the neighboring home and i saw her looking at us so after talking to the nigerian we went and approached her (she was waiting outside the door) and she was awesome!!! she didnt live there but she was visiting a friend and she was super interested. we have been in contact since and we'll teach her on friday in her home. She is filipino and works at the hospital and follows some mormon vloggers online or something but has a ton of faith and is very interested. Why did we go to that street? and why did we feel like going to the other street first? and then why did we decide to knock that last door instead of leaving right then? because Jennine was about to visit her friend and we needed to be at that place at that moment. what a miracle! 

Next miracle: thursday we went street contacting with two of the sisters in colchester and a brazillian sister and i met two younger ghanians on high street cause i asked one of them if he played baseball (he had a baseball shirt on) to which he said no but we exchanged numbers and they said they'd want to play football (soccer) with us sometime. I invited him to church the next day over text and we talked a bit but then sort of just stopped... anyways sunday morning we were sitting in ward council and i got a text and it was from him and he was asking me where the chapel was cause he wanted to come to church! We went with a member and picked him up and he brought his brother along and they loved it. they moved to colchester 2 weeks ago and were searching for a church to go to. They are really genuine and interested to learn about it all and they said theyd read a chapter of the BOM every day until wednesday. We will teach them tomorrow! 

another miracle: we had another exchange last week and i was with an elder from hong kong and we went to teach a woman that elder withers and I found back in april but lost touch with. it turns out she spoke pretty good english but there were a lot of things that Elder Chu explained to her in mandarin (her name is flora and she's chinese) and so that was a miracle as well! she said a prayer at the end of our lesson and it was such a spiritual and special moment- it was her first prayer and it was so sincere. I think we should all imagine what our prayers would sound like if they were our first prayer in our life and try to make every single prayer that sincere and meaningful. hearing her made me think about my own prayers and how often they lack sincerity. 

In other news, we had interviews with president yesterday and that was great! I love him and Sister Stevens and spending a short time one on one with each of them is time I treasure. 

Elder Burgess passed his driving test as well so for the first time in  a while im sitting in the passenger seat!

Love you all tons! Have fun at efy Natalie!!!!! i hope you feel better but either way i know you'll have a blast. 

Elder Jensen

Our "funeral" at the Cambridge district meeting for elder on the couch who is finishing his mission and going home next week.

President Stevens, Sister Stevens, Sisters Matthews and Wright (the sister training leaders) after interviews

We play football (soccer) in the park every morning for exercise with these sisters and they have 2 or 3 exchanges a week (when another companionship of sisters will come into Colchester and work with them for the day)  And we have a lot of exchanges as well so often we have 6, 8, or even 10 (the AP's stayed in our flat one night last week on the day of one of our exchanges and a day the sTL's had an exchange as well) missionaries playing football at the park in the morning. Trouble is, we've been getting a lot of bug bites as a result. Still worth it tho

Week 59-July 11, 2016

Week 59-July 11, 2016

Hi fam!

I don't have a lot of time to write this week but thank you all so much for the emails and updates. I look forward to reading each one of your emails so much- thank you for taking the time each week! I am so glad to hear that yiwei and amanda got baptised, what an amazing story. I can't wait to talk to them about it when i get home. I am doing well and I am happy to be here. I love England and I love English people and especially the members here. It is so easy to see what a difference there is in families that live the gospel and those that don't, the members here are amazing and i love this ward and this country so much. I know that God is our Father in Heaven and that He has a plan that we are a part of. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and the key role He has played in our Father's plan. This is His church and He is at the head, and Thomas S. Monson is His prophet. What a wonderful message I get to share and regardless of who listens and who doesn't, I am proud to put on my badge every day. He is the Son of God and to represent him is an honor. I love you all! have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Week 58-July 4, 2016

Week 58-July 4, 2016

'MURICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOOOOO LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE!!!! 

We had a mission conference! Elder Patrick Kearon (area president of Europe) and he also came to our MLC this month so I got to be around him for a day and half. It was incredible- he is such an inspiring man. He spoke in GC last conference! Itd be impossible to share everything I learned from him. He is a man of God though to be sure.. the Spirit is so strong around him. 

one cool story for ths week.. a couple of months ago we taught a man from portugal named Jose and he was doing well and we taught him in the home of a brazillian family in the ward. Then he stopped meeting with us or coming to church cause he didnt have a place to stay when he came to colchester and a family took him in who belonged to some other brazillian church and when they found out about him reading the livro de mormon and coming to our church they prohibited him and so he couldnt continue cause otherwise he'd have nowhere to stay (he recently was divorced with his wife and she got the house and car). it was super sad and it really upset me.. I just figured one day he'd join the church cause he told the member he had really liked us and believed in the Book of Mormon and such. Fast forward 2 months later, yesterday in church the Brazillian member came up to me and told me that Jose had been to his place and talked to them for an hour that week saying he had ttried to call us but couldnt get ahold of us. He's moving out of his house and (turns out may be moving from Colchester entirely) wanted to meet again. It was such a miracle and we have been struggling in our area to find people who will progress at all so it was a huge blessing. I am just so grateful to see that God is doing the work and I needn't worry so much. 

Besides that, Tony and his son Reese (friends of some of the members) came to church this week and we taught them saturday night. they wont accept a date and kinda freaked out but we were happy he came to church. 

I love this ward! funny story- one of the members heard how much i like eating eggs and showed up at church and gave me this egg recipe booklet with loads of different dishes tomake out of eggs LOL

I love this work! It has been a great week full of incredible spiritual experiences at the mission tour and also at MLC and in colchester. I got to see Elder Withers at MLC and that was a blast! we sang a musical number with 2 other elders in MLC as a quartet and i sang alto; we sang where can I turn for peace and it turned out pretty well. the rehearsals were amazing- performance wasnt too great. funny how that always happens. 

Sorry to hear that your musical number didnt go too well either Lydia!! but im impressed with how chill you are about that, despite there being so many people in the crowd. #hakunamatata right?! glad you loved EFY. 

IM SO EXCITED FOR YIWEI AND AMANDA!!!!! thats incredible news!!!!! i told my companion the whole story and i wish i could tell Elder WIthers cause he knows all about them as well. What changed while they were in Taiwan? send them my congratulations and tell them i said hi! 

Love you all! I know Heavenly Father lives and this is the Saviour's church with His authority and everything we need to return to live with HF. We are so blessed.

Elder Jensen

p.s. ill send some pics

Alvin and Doris' baptism day last week! And the missionaries who taught them.

My freedom socks

The district plus two sisters from a different district of the zone who happened to be visiting the castle in Colchester today. We played football (soccer) and frisbee and had lots of food in the park. It was tons of fun. And yes those might be my America socks around my head. Missionaries in this pic are from Brazil, Italy, South Africa, and England and The blessed Stars and Stripes.. I love the diversity of missionaries in this mission!

Our district. Love these missionaries! They're great.. So hard working and all such great missionaries

Doris! And the sisters who taught her!

We started having fun with these pics.. 

Week 57-June 27, 2016

Week 57-June 27, 2016

England is Leaving the EU

Hey! Not a lot of time but some highlights from last week:

Doris and Alvin got baptised here in Colchester- both the sisters' investigators! I interviewed Doris and she asked me to baptise her so that was a good experience. She is from Ghana and hasn't gone to church since she came to england. She owed a ton of money on her flat and on her first week at church we prayed and told God that "if he took care of her rent situation she'd worship Him in this church for the rest of her life. " that evening her landlord called out of the blue and said to forget about all the rent that was due- that she could have a fresh start. she has been rock solid ever since that incredible miracle. she is so funny too. 

We spent a day in Cambridge and during the evening me and Elder Walker were tracting and it started pouring but we kept tracting. on one doorstep I asked a man where he was from and he said "turkey. where are you from?"  to which i replied "chicken." he laughed pretty hard and so did elder walker. then he shut the door. lol. while walking up to the last door we knocked on i said to elder walker that no matter what i wanted to get inside that home- i was sick of the rain. it was a sweet older lady who knew a bit about the BOM. we talked to her for a little while and then she agreed to let us in and we taught her the whole Restoration and she said she'd read the Book of Mormon ( we gave her 3 Ne 11) and pray about it and we could come back on wednesday. Her name was Doreen- it was a miracle and evidence that the Lord blessed us for continuing despite the pouring rain. but of course it wasnt until the last door that we got to meet her. I wont see her again most likely but it was a great experience.

There were a lot of other spiritual experiences from this week but most of all I realised that faith is a choice but there is evidence EVERYWHERE of God and of His son Jesus Christ. There are parallels everywhere and the blessings of keeping His commandments are immense. I feel as if this week I learned how important it is to be 100% diligent and just work work work until the last minute of every day. We had a tough week in our own area this week but I am confident the Lord will provide people to teach if we continue to be diligent. 

another funny story- we also spend some time in Chelmsford (another big city south of Colchester) and an elder from texas named Elder Merrill and i were walking behind two women holding a bag inbetween them full of groceries. I had tried to stop them but they had blown by me and we followed them cause we needed to go the same direction. Elder Merrill got out a pamphlet and dropped it into their bag of groceries without them noticing. It was hilarious. i wish i could see their reaction when they saw it later that day... persistence is key! good job elder Merrill.

It is great to hear you are all doing well! I loved the updates. Exciting that Lydia is going to EFY and staying with Ash! and I hope the operation went well for Mandy! I am praying for her! ben, sorry to hear about your soccer game. better luck next time.

This week we will be in London for 2 days cause President Kearon (he's spoken in GC a few times) is visiting our mission and then attending our Mission Leadership Council so we will stay overnight for both those meetings. Im pumped. 

love,

Elder Jensen

p.s. i kinda need new shoes and trousers. i might get some today before the meeting with Pres Kearon cause my ecco shoes are fine but they are very worn and scratched up. im thinking of getting some shoes to wear to meetings and such. ill keep you posted on if i do end up buying some. i guess im not sure why im telling you this..... 

p.p.s. ill send some pics separately.

Here's a selfie for you mom! Btw, have I told you that Elder Burgess is a convert? He's an absolute stud. Been a member for exactly 2 years this week! From western England

That rabbit is a gift from the 4 sister missionaries in the ward. Idk where they found it but they always joke about how much I like eating boiled eggs (they're super easy to cook) so they surprised me with this random egg holder. It was pretty funny.

I know I need to cut my hair but we ran into some Malimu puppies (similar to huskies) they were just insanely cute.. I can't expl

Btw elder walker is 6'7" I think

The view from the window of our flat. Beautiful