Week 21-October 19. 2015

Week 21-October 19. 2015

Hey everyone, glad to hear the canadian thanksgiving was celebrated and all the incredible news about gavin, yiwei, and amanda from dad! way to go Lydia on everything especially singing mary did you know because thats a sweet song! send me a video when you practice next! Can you tell Brother Rossiter i send him a big hug and a hundred dollar bill? Natalie, sounds like your week was bomb. i absolutely LOVE hearing the sports news and i wish i could be there watching all of them and cheering obnoxioiusly and making a fool of myself and emberassing you! just imagine what i would do in the stands everytime you are playing.. thatll make you grateful.. mandy!!! whatd you thinki of pride and prejudice?! are you in love with mr darcy now? i wish i could go on a walk with you and toffee. we will someday soon so take good care of each other till then! benjamin.. what happened with all those weird emails? anyways way to go scoring the winning run in your baseball game. baseball is so much fun but unless you get really fat dont expect to be hitting home runs in little league cause if youre like me you just wont be big enough yet. its all good though just make up for it in your speed!!! Mom, that is so funny about me and ash's missions. (looks like im using all of mom and dad's money that they are sending to you ash.. thanks hehe) i wish i could have been there for canadian thanksgiving! i tell EVERYONE i meet from canada that my mom is canadian and tlak all about canada! i have a newfound loyalty to your country now. and THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE MOM!!! Love you to death. mr. big bars were gone before you could even blink an eye... Dad, you are right about my companion. but its interesting how if i had stayed with my last comp any longer, i would have stopped learning so much and progressing. the constant change, even when the change brings something a lot harder and trying, is what helps us grow! thats why i am fully confident that the Lord organised his church like that. bishop dunham was bishop for 5 years and then he moved on probably right when he started feeling as if he had a grip on what he was doing. What is interesting is that an apostle never leaves his calling and neither does the prophet..

Here is a very special experience that happened this week for me and that I wrote down really quick the night it happened so I'm just going to copy and paste it.

Walking down sidewalk saw a lady carrying lots of grocery bags. Looked faintly familiar but didn't think much of it. Figured we are in Kilburn Park all the time so that's why she was familiar. Walked on. Kept looking across street. She stopped at bench in front of park. I figured oh well and walked past and left her behind thinking nothing of it. Then had a feeling to go talk to her. Figured oh well what can I lose? 180 and without explaining to elder wood headed straight back and across street, noticing she had set all of her bags on the bench but not sat down. Said excuse me ma'am can I help carry your bags to your house. She looked at me smiled and said no, but hi how are you! Clearly recognising me, I went with it and knew I had talked to her at some point in the past. Until 5 minutes in convo, didn't know where or when or who she was. She said it is so funny I ran into you two because just yesterday I was thinking about your church. Asked me for the address. Spoke for 45 minutes. She offered a prayer before we parted way and we set a time to meet at the church. Still many reservations but curious and noticed something so different and friendly about us. Finally realised after looking down at her purse where I knew her from. Had stopped in Holland Park a week or so back by asking abou the native American looking fringes on her purse and ended up having very intense conversation and lesson about restoration on sidewalk an she had refused any contact info but accepted our email and a Book of Mormon. Overwhelming realisation of what a miracle this was. The chances we have of running into a person twice is so small- for it to be the one lady I wished so badly for another chance to see and teach and to have so miraculously and luckily (having no knowledge of who she was in the moment of decision) turned and walked towards her and talked to her- it was a miracle! 

Dad- can you tell me about the seventh day Adventists? Why do they say that the sabbath is on Saturday and why do they claim that it wasn't supposed to be changed to Sunday? Does it have to do with the resurrection on the Saviour? I am clueless and don't know where to look for the answer because it's not in the scriptures.

This weekend we got to have stake conference here in Hyde Park and it was truly incredible. I got to go to the leadership session before the evening session and then the Saturday evening session was as president Kearon said, perhaps the best Saturday evening session he had ever been in. The big news is that Sister Burton (general relief society president) and her husband came, as well as president Kearon (president of the church in the Europe Area) and his wife came. So it made for quite the weekend.. I got to meet and shake hands with each of them. The Saturday morning session we sang in a choir and I have discovered a love for singing in a choir! I have always felt the spirit most quickly and most strongly through music and I have also always loved being a part of a group making beautiful music together- it started long ago but the best memories and examples come from marching band playing lead trumpet in a band of 300 and a brass section of 90 and playing chords and progressions that would send chills up and down my entire body and leave me feeling like I had experienced something not quite of this world. Anyways it was so much fun to sing in a choir! And with president Stevens the mormon tabernacle choir singer himself! Great experience. I want to join a choir at byu when I get home.

London- where missionaries get wider and their suits get slimmer 

A word to mom- please love the missionaries! No matter how awkward and unlovable they are... Because you are exactly the kind of woman who by being like their momc, can make a world of a difference by doing so and change everything and help the missionaries so much!i just picture what it would be like to have you in my ward, how awesome it'd be to have a woman like you treat us like part of her family.

Love you all so much! This week was a pretty long email which is good right? Hahaha take care and have a wonderful week everyone! 

Elder J

(sent Oct. 22, 2015)
Sister Jensen, My name is Elsa Jensen and my friend and I are currently traveling around Europe as a post college graduation trip and we ran into your son and his companion in the underground rail station yesterday in South Kensington London. He is happy and doing well and is full of the spirit.  He wanted us to let you know that he loves and misses you! We loved running into such wonderful examples and disciples of Christ - many blessings and thanks to you and your son for a wonderful life led. Sincerely, Elsa Jensen

Where I do my studying eating and lots of things. I thought it was pretty and so I took a pic one morning. 

A beautiful park I stopped to take a picture of. The parks here are incredible- little spots of heaven in a huge city. I have fallen in love with anything green

Me and one of my best buds here, Ali Suliman. He's a millionaire, stamp collector, stronger than a truck, miner from the jungles of the Congo, widely known famous legend in Africa, scariest and most loving man you can find in London... And a convert of 2 years with a testimony like a prophet! We are such good friends and I love him to death. This was my first ride in a taxi in London

Week 20--October 12, 2015

Week 20--October 12, 2015

Hey fam! I really messed up this week and don't have any time to write

which is completely my fault. I was totally planning on writing you
such a long email because so much has happenede that I wanted to tell
you all about. The big news though is that I will be staying in hyde
park 2 for one more transfer! Six more weeks. Which means that in
total I will be here in this ward for 6 months! Elder wood is staying
here too which means I will get to finish training him and then I will
almost definitely leave. Elder Leite, my long time good friend and
zone leader since I arrived, is leaving tomorrow and that will mean
that none of the original elders in our flat when I arrived will be
left. I will miss him dearly but who knows maybe I will serve with him
again in the future! I am looking forward to this next transfer
because I feel as if I need to change something- Part of me wanted to
move because I needed change but this will be an opportunity to change
myself instead of my surroundings. Daniel decided he doesn't want to
be baptised anymore but Khohrow agreed to live the word of wisdom and
brought a friend to one of our lessons who wants to be baptised as
well! We will see if they can change and accept the gospel but I am
praying for all of them. I love you all so so so much. Being a
missionary is a wonderful experience and i am in a place and doing a
job that allows me to come closer and get to know the Saviour in a way
I never would have been able to before and for that I am so grateful.
The spirit is so real and I feel it so often while being a missionary
testifying to strangers about what I believe and whAt is dearest to my
heart. I may not know everything but we never will here in this life,
but when we act on what we do know and take that faith and testimony
that we do have and exercise it, then it starts to grow. I am always
thinking of you all! Thank you so much for your emails they mean the
world to me and I absolutely love reading them!

Elder Jensen

Week 19--October 5, 2015

Week 19--October 5, 2015

Man... Is it weird to say that I am super jealous that you guys went
to watch Cinderella without me?

This week was a super good one for us. We finally some some things
happening and set some records for our area this week, which is
awesome. Two people are on date for baptism now.. A man named Daniel
and a man named Khohrow (pronounced Hoce- row) and they are
coincidentally both from Iran! Which is Persia which is Iran they are
the same country, that I had to learn hahaha. I love these guys so
much and seriously want the best for them. They both came to general
conference with us at the chapel! And I don't know if I have told you
this already but Augusto has been helping us with all kinds of stuff-
teaching, meals, sitting with out investigators... He is such a
tremendous help. He has embraced the church and the gospel 100% again
and I am calling it right now that he will return to the philipines
soon and be called as a bishop. He would make such an amazing bishop.

Daniel is a guy who was Muslim growing up in Iran but came to England,
and realized he never really believed in it. By a few miraculous
events he ended up becoming Christian but doesn't go to any particular
church at the moment, just reads the bible and prays every night. We
have taught him 3 or 4 times now and I have never before truly
understood how vital it is that the church of Jesus Christ was
restored and that the preisthood was restored. Explaining it all and
struggling to find out why it is so important has opened my eyes to
the clarity of it all. For anyone who reads the bible, it would seem
clear to them that there needed to be a restoration. There are far too
many false claims to authority that would be so confusing had it not
been for the restoration through Joseph smith. It's funny how much you
learn trying to help someone else understand something. That's a truth
I have discovered- when you teach something, you learn more than the
"student" and it becomes engrained into your mind in a way that it
becomes part of you and makes so much sense! I have always loved
explaining things in the most clear, simple way and it has been
wonderful to try to do so here as a missionary. Daniel plays football
(a.k.a. Soccer ) and although Ben Mandy and natalie are probz better
than him he is a baller for an old man. He plays with us and the other
missionaries with a group of guys at hyde park on Tuesday's and it has
been a blast! Reminds me how much I love football. This last week
there were a bunch of american football players practicing next to us
and I thought it was so funny.... I turned around and looked around
but there were no other Americans besides my companion but he doesn't
play with us so I had no one to laugh with. Wasn't sure who was
playing real football. (Mom I love the American flag socks I wear them
every chance I get)

General conference was amazing! I loved it. Dad... Haven't you talked
about elder Rasband before??? I know he was mission president of your
mission because the bishops counselor here was a missionary in your
same mission but much later than you were and he says elder Rasband
was there when he was there so I can't imagine he was also your
mission president... But I still feel like you have talked about him
before.

Transfers are next week!!! I am dying... I feel this feeling that this
time around I might be leaving hyde park 2 finally. Inside, I will be
pretty torn apart if I do. At the same time, I am ready for a change..
But anyways we will just have to wait and see what happens. I can't
believe the time is flying by so quickly. Anyone who had served a
mission will tell you and I have heard them tell me before that time
seems to dissappear as a missionary but I am truly seeing that start
to happen. To think that I will be starting my fourth transfer in a
week is insane! It makes me want to do something crazy... Who knows..
I have been considering inviting people to be baptised the first time
I meet them on the street so maybe I'll just start doing that. Hahahah
but seriously, I just want to live every moment to the fullest! Forget
my fears and change the world one soul at a time... If only it were
easier! but I personally think that the Saviour is the real driving
force behind everything. He is the one who makes things happen and so
part of being a missionary is learning to get out of the way and
become a real disciple- someone who the Spirit can work through. And
that is a life long task. Perhaps President Monson knows what it is
like to become that type of person.

Anyways, love you all so much! I truly do think and pray for each of
you every day. Keep up the good work yall. I feel like I may be a
missionary but you girls especially are going to be the ones to change
the world, both on missions of your own and in your daily lives being
the amazing girls you are! Ben will change the world too. He's gunna
crack the code and figure out how to hie to kolob as the worlds first
scientist-prophet hahahahaha. "Love yous!!!!!" As my dear friend Elder
Tinao says

Love always,
Elder Jensen


Mom.. This general conference I thought especially of you many times.
I love you more than anything! Thank you for everything! I will never
be able to repay you and Dad for all that you have done for me. The
girls and Ben are in the best hands they could possibly be in and that
makes me so happy.

Week 18--September 28, 2015

Week 18--September 28, 2015

Hey family!

Man I can't even tell you how fun it is to read your emails. It brings
me so much joy. It's so good to hear that everything is going well and
that you are each doing missionary work and that your testimonies are
so strong! My week was really good and to sum it up, basically we have
been street contacting all week long because we have almost zero
investigators. It has been very hard, but a good growing experience
and so I'm thankful for that. I wore the tie you sent me yesterday
Mom! I got some compliments for it too which is awesome because we are
always wearing a tie so if you get a compliment for it then you know
it's a nice one. I have been learning so much as a district leader and
although I am still struggling to learn everything and there is a lot
for me to improve I feel as if I am getting a little more comfortable
with some of the responsibilities. I love the chance to think about
more people then just the folks we work with in our area. Good to hear
that ashley didn't get affected by that earthquake! I found a guy from
Santiago this week and had a really long and good convo with him and
took a picture to send to ashley so I'll attach it.

Dad, can you tell me a little more about grandpa? Exciting to hear
that Yiwei and Amanda are still interested, I'll keep them in my
prayers. Mom, how is young women's going?

Hope you all have an amazing week. I love you all so much it is
difficult to put into words! I pray for you each every single night.

Love,
Elder Jensen

A zone pday badminton tournament! 

Week 17--Sept. 21, 2015

Week 17--Sept. 21, 2015

"19" by taylor swi-..jensen

FAM! do you get the title? feels like im 22... the song by taylor swift... whatever it was a stretch

I added graham and nick carrigan to this because they are on their missions and wanted to get my weekly emails. just a heads up. you all know graham and nick left after first semester to Sweden but was a really good friend of ours.

It was so weird to think of mom and dad off doing their things this week and lydia and natalie holding down the fort... when natalie said that lydia was driving everyone everywhere and she was getting everyone ready for school i just about questioned mom and dads sanity. then i remembered that lydia and natalie... you two arent the little girls who i used to jump on the tramp and play with! its clear you have grown up so much. honestly i think you have surpassed my maturity level already which is a little depressing

So fun to hear from Benjamin and mandy too, sounds like you had an awesome week. Benjamin keep those lizards alive!!! and mandy, thanks so much for offering to let me play your new ukelele when i get home! we can jam out together. mom- i wish that i had known great grandma Tanner better. but i am glad that one day i will! from what you say about her, she sounds a lot like you. Dad- thanks for the words of advice. how are things with Yiwei and his wife? anything new? have they come to church? sounds like a sweet time at the ucla byu game... can't believe we lost though... jack heer must have been so happy. sorry to hear about the drunk guy though, seems like there are people like that everywhere

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE BDAY STUFF! The package made my week mom thank you so so soso sosososossosososos much and i loved every single thing! you could seriously not have sent more perfect gifts. I have been wanting some american socks so badly.... its like you knew exactly what i wanted. and the ties?!!?!? They are SICK!!! Im sure you will see me wearing them in pictures in the future. your note made me laugh so hard mom :) and to the rest of you, thank you so much for the cards, each one of you. i felt so close to you all reading your notes. my birthday was great! it fell on the day of interviews with the president, funny enough! we played volleyball as a zone in the chapel for exercise that morning and the zone leaders elder leite and tinao (our flat buddies) left super early to "run" but really went a bought a cake. they surprised me with it and sang to me with the zone and it was really fun. Then during personal study, president jordan called me and him and sister stevens sang to me which was sweet of them. That day we went upstairs to the mission office before interviews to check the mail and the packages and sister williams who is just the funniest most hilarious woman ever had all the office missionaries sing for me wearing the bday stuff because elder wood told them even though i made him promise not to. the good thing was i got to hear elder williams' personal rendition of the birthday song which is legendary here in the mission and it was awesome. they insisted on taking a photo and she sent it to me so ill attach it. interviews went really well! you know, president stevens is a very good man, and very smart too. it was an honor to talk to him one on one for a little while. and sister stevens... wow she is really just the most amazing mission presidents wife. both her and sister jordan were incredible and both president jordan and stevens are also incredible and all in such different ways. it makes me realize that leadership in the church is always changing, but different people bring equally good things to the table. even though saying goodbye to one is very difficult, the next will be different and amazing in their own way. I feel very blessed to have met the Jordan's before they returned home. Sister STevens made brownies for interviews and they were so good...... nice bday treat. That evening we went to augusto's to do some service but didnt have time so just had dinner with him. he had made avocado and mango and shrimp (called prawn here) because they are all my favorite things. quick note about augusto. he showed me yesterday that he had gotten a temple recommend and is going to the temple with the ward this saturday for endowments, and is making such enormous progress. it is amazing to me and fills me with joy. i love him so much and would do anything for him... elder chronister and i feel so blessed to have been a part of his life and seen him come back to the gospel. that night while i did call-ins with the sisters in the district, elder wood made a carrot cake with cream cheese (i picked it out in honor of dad) frosting. he also gave me a tie that morning which was so nice of him to do. i couldn't ask for a better companion. he has made it a tradition to bake on the nights i do call-ins which has been making it so hard to fit into the right belt loops anymore. ill try to send some pics i took on my camera of the following night when we had time to put the banner up and balloons and had peanut butter oatmeal cookies (courtesy of Elder WOod of course) and used the candles. Thanks so much for those mom! 

So yea, that was my bday! it was wonderful and for a large part due to you guys, so thanks :) youre the best family ever.

Other than that, some interesting exciting things happened this week but ill just mention a few! to answer your questions mom, chris has gone missing, and being a trainer entails what it sounds like. basically i am now in charge of the area and what we do and we have an hour a day extra to study a program by the church to help new missionaries learn what and how to do things. its called 12 weeks and you do it the first 2 transfers of your mission, which means i get to do it all over again right away! maybe the Lord knew i wasnt always paying close attention the first time and gave me a second chance.. hahaha and being a district leader just means that i call the two pairs of sisters in the district (visitor's centre sisters) and go over their areas breifly and then report it all to elder leite(the zone leader) 3 nights a week. also, i organize a district meeting once a week and trainings for the 8 of us. It's been such a blessing! the district is incredible and we are all super super young. If you add up the time me, elder wood, and the four sisters have been on our missions...... elder leite has been out longer. hahahahaha so we are all fairly new which makes it a ton of fun! the sisters are super hardworking and really do such great work that its a privilege to serve with them and i learn a lot from them and their examples.its weird not doing calls with any elders cause i feel like im at home with all my real sisters and benjamin is elder wood...just 2 on 4 plus the zone leaders who are like mom and dad. ive always been outnumbered i suppose.

We were teaching a mother and her two sons (18 and 24) got in a huge fist fight and shouting match and it was really really tough because everyone was yelling at them to stop and for the older one to get off of the younger one but there are no other guys in the home so they couldnt do anything to stop it and we were in a different room and i got up and ran to the door because out of instinct i wanted to go try to break it up but then stopped just before opening the door and realized that maybe i shouldnt... i just stood there praying to know what to do and almost instantly they stopped and apparently the 18 year old just left the house and ran so that was that. i thought a lot about it since and i think it would have been very bad to get involved at all and probably against the white handbook too and just in general an ugly situation so i was so grateful that it broke up before i had done something

anyways thats all the time i have. Im only ONE YEAR AWAY FROM BEING 20 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a bit of an epiphany the night before my bday and realized it was my last time in my entire life of being 18 years old... ill never get that year back!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and keep being so amazing. you inspire me! ill send you some pics mom because they are on my ipad and im on the computer

Love

Elder Jensen

This is the beloved senior missionary crew in the mission office... They are something else! Sister Williams is the one between me and elder wood and elder Williams is the one to the left of Elder Wood. They are so much fun and I love going up to the office and seeing them. Elder and Sister Gale are really wonderful too, they just arrived recently and are on the outsides. Oh and I'm wearing the tie elder wood gave me! The light blue one.. I love it!

This is a photo taken at the conference with Klayton Christensen and his wife. They are on the stand he's the super tall one. This is the ELM! Im in the aisle on the right at the back with the short black elder. He's one of my friends from the MTC... I don't know if you'll be able to pick us out hahah but I'm wearing a brown tie.

This is the district! With president and his wife at interviews.

Week 16--Sept. 14, 2015

Week 16--Sept. 14, 2015

Hey fam! i have almost zero time today. this morning we went to our usual traditional restaruant that Carlos is a chef at. we went with augusto and elder chronister and his companion. It was so nice to see them and spend time together it felt like normal. Then we had a zone badmintton tournament and potluck in the gym at the chapel all afternoon and played some chair football and basketball after the sisters left. it was a ton of fun... Our zone is like a big family and because geographically we are a tiny zone, we all see each other quite often! for example, we all met up at the chapel this morning for zumba and yoga together with a senior missionary who leads it. Tons of fun... 

but yea so combined with everything we had to get done today and the fact that we are having fhe tonight means i have no time. But to summarize, we havent seen much success this week and it has been frustrating. I have been learning to let go of my grip on the outcome and instead trust God a little more. I just work so hard and expect results and when they dont come i get mad... i love to not worry and just work though. its a great feeling and even though sometimes nothing good is coming of it, I feel happy. I learned that when I get discouraged my faith starts to go down. But when i just work hard and let go of my worries, my faith increases and my doubts fade. I think all of our lives we have to choose to believe and to fight our doubts and make sure they dont get the best of us. 

Anyways, thank you so much for the birthday wishes :) you guys are the best fam out there i love you so much. visiting members and families here makes me realize how happy i will be when i can sit down in the kitchen with all of you again. i dont want to boast but we have an incredible home and the best family.  j-squad for life!#

love you all! #finally19 #gettingfatandoldalready

-elder J swizzles

ill send some pics seperately mom!

dad- i have a copy of the stories. ann and matt sent it to me and i absolutely loved it. so yea i know what youre talking about. Also, about yiewei really briefly. That is incredible! what i wanted to tell you was that one thing klayton christensen  did with his friend was ask him what his biggest questions were, assigned him 2 BOM chapters that contained the answers, then told him to pray, read, write a 2 paragraph summary answwer to each question, pray, read again and revise the summaries, and then pray to know if it was true and what he read was true. he came back with incredible answers that shocked even them and a testimony and desire to be baptised. all because he found the answers himself! you are the best teacher explainer i know but he will have to find his answers in the quiet alone time that he spends. something to bear in mind. Tell him i said hello!!! I miss him and the lab, he is such a great guy

Elder Bender elder Ammermon and elder Chiwara (im the one with the hops)

Basketball for exercise in the morning! 

My favorite kiddos. Ella and Lucho

Week 15-Sept. 8-2015

Week 15-Sept. 8-2015

Sup fam!!! so guess what, i got my new companion and we are doing just fine. We had three people come to church plus a recent convert who we accompanied to church because she didnt know how to find it. We have our work cut out for us in terms of progressing investigators now though because the one man (Chris) we put on date we let the YSA elders take over so he is no longer ours. That was sad because i worry they wont love him as much as i do because he's a bit of a tough cookie and takes some patience.. We'll see how it goes. Other than that, we had a bit of a miracle and not only did our buddhist investigator Nimi come to church but so did an Iranian man we taught months ago when me and Elder Chronister just started here. he had fallen off a bit, but randomly called us up and said he was coming to church with his friend! Sure enough, him and an iranian doctor came and promised they would be coming next sunday as well. The friend was a man who had met with missionaries and went to the LDS churches in Japan many many years ago and when he found out Khohrow (the guy we taught a few months back) knew mormon missionaries he got really excited and so they came and here we are, hopefully going to be able to teach these two men. ill attach a pic of them because oour zone decided to make a shared album on icloud where we would all take selfies with our investigators and post them to the album so the whole zone could see them.

this week was wild because of the transfer, so we didnt get to do that much work. on wednesday for our last hurrah and salute to our wonderful 2 transfers together, Elder Chronister and I made the run of a lifetime. We got up extra early, at about 5:50, and ran all the way from our flat to buckingham palace, trafalga square, then to the river Thames and followed the river all the way to St. Paul's cathedral and millenial bridge. And the sunrise that morning was beyond description... We stood on Millenial bridge (almost out of our mission) and looked at the sky and the skyline for probably 15 minutes before taking the tube home... it was just incredible. one of the most surreal moments either of us had ever had. Ill attach some pics because Elder Chronister has a GoPro and took some sweet pictures.

Basically transfer day was a roller coaster of emotions but it was a very good learning experience. My old MTC companion and really good friend Elder Withers (from BYU) is training too AND so are our two original trainers! so me and Elder C, elder withers and his trainer Elder Cook were all there waiting for our new missionaries, i thought it was really funny hahaha. Also, ill attach a really really cool four generation picture that we took with our family tree

So a quick bit about my new companion before i finish. His name is Elder Wood, and we are getting along great. He is from Mississippi and is an artist and an actor! He is really smart and good at explaining the gospel really simply and sincerely and im learning a lot from him.. and guess what mom.. he bakes!!!!! Also we have a new zone leader in our flat now that elder jackson left named Elder Tinao who is from New Zealand and is half samoan and half tongan and the flat has been a party. to the girls: we played big 2 last night and i didnt win once..... all that practice and i lose!? it was beginners luck on their part.. me and elder tinao were together on saturday for an exchange which was SUCH a blast we just talked to everyone and had a fantastic day teaching lessons and visiting a couple of less actives and such. 

I took over all of Elder Chronister's stuff basically his side of the desk, his bed, everything... elder wood doesnt like to run much so it looks like ill be getting swole instead this transfer hitting the weights. heavens knows i could use some of that. The transition of this whole transfer has been tough, but I have learned a lot. It has really humbled me and it has caused me to ask Heavenly Father for help. Luckily for me though, my district is full of sisters younger in their missions or as old in their missions as me and they are such understanding hard working missionaries and the zone leaders are such a help that i could not be more blessed as i struggle to learn how to fulfill my new responsibilities.

KLAYTON CHRISTENSEN CAME TO OUR MISSION! he spoke to the whole mission about member missionary work and it was incredible. the man is on another level, he reminds me of Dad. he's the dean of the Harvard business school and the most influential business thinker in the world.. you guys know who he is. But anyways I got to see all of my old MTC friends which was so amazing. Brother Christensen was inspiring let me tell you... it was really something.

One of the highlights of my whole mission was last night when we had an FHE with some members and some missionaries at the chapel and Augusto told me that he had accepted a calling as a ward missionary from our Bishop on Sunday and that he would be sustained this following Sunday... Its hard to describe how much this meant to me and Elder Chronister but it is splendid news. 

also blake sent me a video of the byu play..... SO sweet

Love you each so much. I pray and think of you always. Have a fantastic week and pray for missionary work and for opportunities to share the gospel. Mom youre gunna be legendary as YW president i just wish i were there to mess around and cause trouble still. 

HAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYY BIRTHDAY MANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <333333333333333  I LOVE YOU!!!! Have a super dooper day homegirl. Ill be thinking of you on friday. Ill be sending you a letter so hopefully it gets there soon! 

 

ill send some pics from my ipad. the gospel is true and its worth sacrificing for. love you!

The family tree is growing. elder fanga -> elder Chronister -> me -> elder wood 

The MTC group reunited at mission conference

The whole zone at Big Ben today! Had to show all the new missionaries
the sights.

Our last supper (breakfast actually) 

The new companion elder Wood. Stud