Week 56-June 20, 2016

Week 56-June 20, 2016

Hey mom and Ash and kids! I dont have a lot of time to email this week cause thing went long and now we want to stop by someone tonight before we go home so Ill be breif but thanks so much for the emails again. 

ipswich is great, colchester is just such a great ward. i love the families here! and I love Elder Burgess already. He is such a good man and a fantastic missionary. i miss Elder Withers but I'll see him often and we'll continue to be friends for our whole lives. Elder Burgess is a convert of about 2 years and the only member of his family and has such a strong testimony. I have a lot to learn from him. Elder Chronister trained him right after he trained me so i know him well already! 

love you all tons! have a fantastic week. thanks again for the emails. yall are da best.

Elder Jensen

Final hours together... As named by the ward, "the dream team" 

The Grieg family and the Rowes! 

Elder chronister on his final day. Met his parents! Love this guy so much. He's back in Arizona now.

A bad quality pic but that's in the Hyde park chapel.. Elder Wihers and I are the two in the middle of the second to front row. He's in a grey suit and I'm to his right in my dark blue suit. Notice the apostle on the stand on the far right... Pretty cool.

Week 55-June 14, 2016

Week 55-June 14, 2016

The Dream Team's new Chapter

aaaaaaaand another transfer gone! just like that. 

This past week on tuesday like i told you Elder OAKS came and spoke to us. it was so cool to meet him and shake his hand and then hear him speak to us live. Funny story, Elder Withers and I were seated somewhere in the back back back of the chapel and then the APs had us stand with them to ask us a question and then a couples missionary came and asked if we wanted to sit in the second row cause there were 2 spots open and we were like "sure!" and they moved us to sit in the middle of the row in the middle pew in the second row just 6 feet or so from the pulpit, which was really neat.. so keep paying your tithing guys! im getting blessings from it! it was awesome. he taught us about teaching repentance as the goal of missionary work.. not baptisms. in the book of mormon apparently it always says missionaries taught repentance and then occasionally it also mentions that they baptised people. It should be the natural product if done right. great conference and it was so good to see so many people again. 

Then Elder Chronister came back to Colchester with us for an exchange and it was great. I'll see him once more at transfers and meet his parents most likely cause theyll be here to pick him up but then away he goes. so crazy how the time flies. this time last year was my 3rd day with him and my 3rd day in the mission feild.

friday we had an exchange with the chelmsford elders and i was with elder Sailsbury. we taught a woman named Maya who is about 19/20 ish and it was an amazing lesson. i was just blown away by how much my own testimony grew and was strengthened as we taught her the and promised her blessings that come from living the gospel. she understood everything so well- she knew exactly what "real intent" meant and said she was scared cause she didnt think she would get an answer about the BOM cause she didnt know if she was willing to change her lifestyle. she then asked about some of the commandments so we taught her and she told us how her peers have questioned her for meeting with us and how shed be afraid to lose her friends. Man, i was so glad i could promise her that her friends would respect her even more and love her for choosing to follow Christ and live his gospel because i had been the recipient of those same blessings. shoutout to my homies back home in A-town.. we havent taught her again since but hopefully we will see her soon! 

we also tuaght a guy named james this week. idk if you'll remember back to this but a kid joined our convo in mcdonalds a couple weeks back while we were trying to teach our other investigator. that was james! i met him in town again and we set up an appt and taught him last week. he's got a crazy life story..he came to church! during sacrament meeting he was on his phone and then without saying anything to him he decided he felt bad for being on his phone distracted so he turned it off and handed it to me. he did that a few more times throughout the 3 hours.. it was funny. he s 19 and homeless with 2 kids from different mothers but had a very difficult upbringing. So i love him and feel for him and we'll try to help him but ultimately its the Lord who can help him if he's willing to let Him. 

Saturday we went to a baptism in chelmsford of a man named Jose from Spain. it was a beautiful service. I especially loved seeing him be baptised and look so happy as he came out of the water. he was a heavy smoker before he met the sisters and loves the book of mormon and has a powerful testimony already. on the way home, elder withers and i freestyled (rapped) for about 15 minutes straight while driving back on the highway. we spit some mad game for a couple of white boys!

So the big news..... Transfers. 

Elder Withers is leaving! and Ill be staying. I am going to miss him dearly- it has been a blur being companions and I have absolutely loved it. He's such a great guy and an incredible leader and missionary and person- I love him and im so grateful for the Lord putting us together in this mission and this area so we could form this friendship. i know it will be a lifelong one. im super excited for his new area though! he's going into London to be in the north part of London with a really cool companion and they will have a great time there. London is awesome- im glad he's going to get a chance to serve there! 

My new companion will be ELder Burgess from (if i remember right) Bristol! which is in England! just west of London a ways. He was Elder Chronister's trainee right after he finished training me! So i know him quite well and already love the guy. He's great and im excited to be his companion! it'll be his first time being a zone leader so i get to show him the ropes. or try at least.. i still dont know what im doing most of the time so pray for him!! lol but really.. it wouldnt be wasted. hahahaha. 

love you all so much!!! This will be a big change and a chance to learn and grow more just like every transfer is. I am so happy to hear about all the exciting stuff you are all up to, and WOW i cant believe its almost summer vacation!!!!!! loved all the pictures and i am always praying for each of you!

God lives and is our Father- and Jesus is His Son and the way we can get back to our Father in Heaven one day. I am so grateful for His gospel and for the restoration! it is a great blessing and privilege to know these important truths.

Elder Jensen

p.s. ill send pics from my iPad!

After exchange on Wednesday.. Probably second to last time seeing him before he's off!

Elder Salisbury snapped a pic of his pie and accidentally got me in it.. The important thing was that pie. Mmmmm... So delicious. Made by sister Randall 

Chillin in our Toyota before football on Saturday morning munchin on some digestives. Heck yea

#Soaked

Dream Team

The wonderful Bueno family! From Brazil. Two of their sons weren't in the pic.. Love this family!

Week 54-June 6, 2016

Week 54-June 6, 2016

Dead Squirrels and Big Meetings

things are great! transfer is almost over. colchester is a great ward.

driving to Zone Meeting with the Sister Training Leader's in the backseat, we were on the phone with our Assistant (elder chronister) and i see a tiny little squirrel on the road inbetween the two lanes and we all go silent for a moment and watch as it starts to move and runs right into our lane and then the car goes *thump* .... the AP just keeps talking and we all just sit in shock with our mouths completely open. the convo goes on and then ends and the AP never even knew that an innocent life had just been extinguished. R.I.P. squirrel. Im sorry. there was nothing i could do!

we had ZOne meeting and Mission Leadership Council this week so we were on the road a lot this week. We woke up at 4 on thursday for MLC cause london traffic is crazy.. and we cant take a train cause we have to load up the car with loads of supplies like BOM's and pamphlets for our zone. MLC was great. it was Elder Chronister's last and during his departing testimony i felt so much love and gratitude for the friendship we made while serving together and then continuing to serve together in different ways throughout the past year. He goes home next week! Missions are life changing and hearing his testimony and his conviction and gratitude for the way his life has been changed was really cool. I hope i undergo the change i need to as well.

It passed our year mark so Elder WIthers can't drive on his american license anymore so i do all the driving btw. i love driving.. especially through the English rolling green hills.

We had a great zone meeting and it went well. I love our zone so much- each of the missionaries too! i just love getting to see them in person, since its such a geographically large zone and we dont get to see them often. its amazing to see them grow as individuals as well! we talked a lot about our calling and the divine method of revelation by which we receive our callings. i felt the spirit really strongly during a role-play we did while elder withers testified to me that he is an authorized reppresentative of Jesus Christ. He speaks with power- what a great companion to have. we are not looking forward to transfers next week.he has taught me so much and we have grown so close. 

we met a lot of really interesting people this week. in clacton, (another missionaries area) me and elder nelson met a kid who liked rapping so i beatboxed and he rapped about our shoes and about Jesus Christ and eventually we found out he had just lost his whole family and he actually lives in colchester so we got his number and hopefully we will see him soon. Then right after, I saw a guy we taught once or twice named Chris! he had moved to clacton and then we lost contact with him about 2 months ago and i just said "Chris!!!" and he looked up and it was the craziest thing seeing him all the way in clacton. turns out he got a place there and the elders in that area then taught him the next day and hopefully he will start to progress! while me and elder withers were tracting we met some interesting people too. some funny small buddhist man invited us in and started telling us how crazy religion is and how pointless it is and the damage it does to create lines between people and then we asked him if he believed in god and he said no because he is a scientist. thats my favorite thing to hear- that or the typical "i dont believe in god, i believe in science" . i just love hearing those things cause i think of Dad. anyways we eventually left but it was really fun to talk to him breifly.

Love you all!!! CONGRATS LYDIA! you'll be a great president of Chanteurs. You deserve it!!! and thanks to the rest of you for your updates this week! 

elder Jensen

Week 53-May 30, 2016

Week 53-May 30, 2016

Over the Hump and through the woods

Fam!

I have about 20 minutes to email cause we had tons of stuff we had to do today and its been nuts but I most of all just have two big announcements:

Marcel got baptised saturday 

and

Thank you for the hump day package!!!

It was literally so much fun opening the package. I think i just feel so connected to you guys when you send me letters or something in the mail- i love it! shoutout to whoever made those delicious square things in the ziploc bag- i ate almost all of them today and gave some to the sisters in the ward cause elder withers is on a diet and they loved them as well.

too many things happened this week to explain but thanks also for the skit ideas!!!!! they really helped. turns out we did something one of the sisters knew how to do which was cut out two holes in  a sheet to stick faces through and arm holes and one of the sets of sisters put their faces through and the other set stood right behind them and put their arms through and elder withers and i walked through a day in our lives as missionaries (funny things like working out and shaving and driving and throwing pass along cards and stopping people in town center etc.) while the sisters had to act it out. so it was hilarious because for instance the shaving bit we pulled out my shaving cream and put it into the one set of sisters hands and they without being able to see rubbed it on the other set of sisters faces. classic talent show skit. it was a big hit. elder withers is a funny guy and the sisters did such a good job hamming it up. 

just to update you on how it feels to be over the mark: it's pretty meaningless to me at this point but the few days leading up to it had me thinking a lot and it felt really weird. being elder wither's year mark as well we naturally talked a lot about it all week and eventually i just decided i didnt want it to be a distraction and now that its passed its really out of my mind. i realized how long but how quickly the past year has gone. times have sometimes flown by but other times were so painfully slow and to think i have another year is good and inspiring also because i want to do so much more this year and leave it all on the court as they say.

this week we will have MLC and our zone meetings again since its the first week of june and then the next week elder oaks comes. then transfers so this next two weeks will fly by and then elder withers and i will probably split. we are sad about that. he is a great missionary and has become such a close friend so that will be sad but thats part of a mission. 

love you all so much! i dont know what i would do without you. you are all such a source of strength for me. have fantastic weeks!!!

love, elder jensen

p.s. ill attach pics to a diff email from my iPad.

Found a woman from Zambia with a German sister on a blitz in Cambridge
and took a selfie to send to Alli! She's now got a baptismal date!!

Went on an exchange with Elder Lindsay from Utah. So good- we found for 4 1/2 hours in town centre that day and taught one lesson in the park by the lake. Great day and great elder. He taught me a lot.

Just Chillin'

Me and my package. Thanks <3. 

P.s. Notice the haircut. I cut elder withers and i's hair this week.

A bird pooed on his arm while we were driving and he had his arm resting outside the car... What are the chances?! 

We went to lunch for our year mark at a nice restaraunt after weekly planning.

Pancakes are rare here..

Marcel's baptism. Beautiful service! Wonderful to be a part of his conversion. He prayed to find the word of God when he moved here after looking around and not liking the churches here and the next day met the elders. That was a long time ago and different elders who have long since left the area but it strengthened my testimony that this is thenLords work each missionary just played a part in doing it. It was good to come into the area just before he took this step so I could hear his story and be a part of his experience joining the church. He's from Nigeria btw.

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...