Week 65-August 22, 2016

Week 65-August 22, 2016

what am i supposed to put here?

Ashley, you read my mind, i can't figure out what to put in the subject line. I feel so boring but i dont have time to sit here and come up with something funny... sorry!

Well, its crazy to think that everyone is back at school. And i can't believe Lydia is a senior. and Natalie is in highschool! and mandy is in middle school. good luck you all! LYDIA I KNOW MR SCHULTZ SO WELL!!! youve gotta tell him youre my little sister! hahahaha I had him for both freshman english and then senior year half a semester for british literature.. Love that goofball. He's a tough one and he can be a bit out there sometimes but just see him for the softie he is deep down. Is he still single and bald? and is he still coaching the track team?

Thanks for all the pictures of Josh's wedding, it was so nice to see them. He sent me a letter and a wedding invitation and said that he is proud of me for being here and that meant a lot to me. I thought it would be really difficult to miss it, but I felt at peace and I know this is where I should be. He knows I love him and we will always be brothers- regardless of whether I got to be at his wedding. I am so glad it went well though!

This week was a sad one but also a great one. Jeffrey will be moving back to philadelphia this upcoming sunday so he won't be baptised here. We gave him a blessing with Bishop Leydon this past week because he wasn't feeling well and then he had a lot of questions about the priesthood so we taught him very in depth about the priesthood. Then he came with us to a family in the ward's home for dinner the next evening and we taught word of wisdom and then about Thomas S Monson. It was a very memorable lesson- i gained a stronger conviction that we are indeed led by a prophet of God. As we watched his last GC address I prayed in my head to know whether he was a prophet, and I looked at him differently then I ever have before and felt a lot of love for him as he spoke. Jeffrey felt the Spirit- after I asked him what he had learned in that short 5 minutes he spoke a little more softly and with more feeling and was visibly different- I am confident he felt something as he watched that video. Funny story: we were on an exchange so I was with a different missionary that day and the new missionary started explaining what baptism was to Jeffrey but he answered his first question and explained what a covenant was perfectly and then looked at me and gave a little half smile and winked and the missionary and the members were surprised and laughed.. He's a smart one! he came to church and still isn't one hundred percent confident this is the one true church but I am confident he will join the church soon. We will have to say goodbye this week and then send him off. i dont look forward to it but I am grateful for Facebook so I can keep in touch with him once that happens and throughout my life.

another quick funny story i was contacting on the street with an Ethiopian sister in our zone and we were talking to an older Carribean lady who said she knew everything about the book of mormon already. I could tell she didn't and i was in a bit of a playful mood so i flipped open the picture of Jesus visitng the Americas and asked her, 'did you know Jesus went to America then?' to which she was shocked and confused and angry that she had been exposed- she started walking away and then a few feet away stopped, turned around, and with plenty of people all around us, shouted 'America?!?! why does it have to be America of all places?!!!' then with everyone watching she walked off angrily and everyone looked at us. As we walked the other direction, i said to myself and the sister i was with 'I dont know, ask Him! He's the one who decided to go there!' we did a lot of laughing that afternoon. 

Elder Burgess hit his one year mark this past friday!!! we had an exchange that day and so me and the elder i was with got him a cake and some chocolate and fashioned a nice '1' on the cake and we all enjoyed it. later that day we went to a restaurant with the 4 sisters in our ward and Elder Burgess had a great hump day all in all I hope.  we definitely gained some weight so if nothing else that was acheived

We played football saturday morning as well and that was a blast!

with edwards family this week we had a family prayer again and this time Henry (his 5 year old) prayed and since he was next to me and holding my hand, he had me help him by telling him what to say and then repeating it. It reminded me of Benjamin! Miss having my little brother around. 

Hope you guys enjoyed Sam's email about the banoffe pie at Margarets this week. That was a real struggle finishing it... I was worried it was going to come back up while we were washing her dishes. 

This week I learned again the importance of charity. We are nothing without it! Also, Jeffrey asked me some more questions about who is a "saint" and why when we are baptised we are joining the church not only receiving a remission of sins. As i studied the scriptures I once again realized how TRUE THE CHURCH IS! Everything in the New Testament supports our church's beliefs and practices; the other christian churches out there go so clearly against many of the original practices of the Early christian church. The church is true- it is Christ's church; and we are members of it and are so blessed by the church. We can't take it for granted fam! I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that now so is Thomas S Monson. what a blessing it is to have them.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week. Take care!

love,

Elder Jensen

ill send pics separately!

Selfie for you mom!

Colchester District Meeting 

From a kid in the ward- love him. He calls me Bob cause Bob the minion has a green eye and a brown eye. He drew this of us during sacrament meeting yesterday and came up to me after to show us so I asked him if I could keep it! Looks like I was a bit emberassed during sacrament meeting cause my face came out kinda red lol

Ipswich DIstrict Meeting- the sister next to a Elder Burgess was the one I was with for the Carribean lady who didn't like he idea of Jesus going to America. And the elder next to her (the black one) was with me on exchange when we taught Jeffrey! 

Congrats to big dog Elder Burgess. Love this guy.

Elder Sharp- a greenie from Utah who I had an exchange with last week. A real stud! A baller too! Had a great time and learned a lot. Love him already. Turns out he followed me and Elder Withers' blogs for a while after getting his mission call and recognised who I was the first day and on the phone asked me "is this the Elder Jensen who ran over a squirrel?" How crazy is It that he's in my zone for his first area?!

Ball is life! We were supposed to make a pose I think but I was the only one who did. 

Week 64-August 15, 2016

Week 64-August 15, 2016

hey fam!!!

i dont have tons of time this week because our pdays are always mad busy.. but a couple of big updates are in order.

jeffrey didnt come to church this week cause he was in London but he's making great progress and we taught him a few times this week. i had a huge testimony building experience this weekend. he is very smart and logical and studies math so he's that kind of thinker and this week he realized that all of his questions boiled down to whether or not this was the one true church and that boils down to joseph smith and the book of mormon clearly so he rededicated himself to reading and praying to know if it was true. we decided to fast this sunday that he would get an answer and on sunday evening we had a fireside at a members home and they taught about the apostasy and restoration from a little different perspective. after the fireside i was talking to jeffrey in the members kitchen and i asked him how he had been feeling as he'd read the book of mormon lately. he said that he had been reading in moroni just for fun and that day he had read moroni 7 and where it spoke about charity he recognized the parallels to the bible and he said that he felt love in his heart which we had spoken about and agreed came from the Spirit for the first time whilst reading the book of mormon. I almost teared up when he said that and i realized that the chances of him reading moroni 7 randomly on his own and feeling that on the day we decided to fast is so slim. God lives! and he answers our prayers. 

one more spiritual experience this week was during a lesson we had with a man named Edward. A little background: elder withers called edward's number from the area book while i was sick about 5 months ago, and we taught him once before passing him to the neighboring ward's missionaries upon realizing he lived across the boundaries. they taught him once or twice but they eventually lost contact with him. Fast forward a month or two, and elder burgess and i are sitting at the colchester train station on monday evening to go into london for an exchange with the AP's. the train comes and as we stand up to get on, edward walks up and sees us and remembers me and we sit on the train altogether and ride into london, some of the very few people taking a train at 730 monday evening into london. he had moved with his family recently back into our area and was happy for us to come around and visit him and his family. he even said he would love to come to church. the odds of me being in this area still and running into him at the train station at a time when hardly anyone takes the train after he had moved back into our area is so small. God really wants this man! while teaching him and his family (wife and 2 young boys) saturday evening, we invited his family to say a prayer together to finish the lesson. i asked them if they would kneel and kneel in a cicle on the ground- then had a thought pop into my mind and told them that we would always hold hands in my family when we prayed. So me and an italian elder who was on an exchange knelt with their family and held hands and edward said a beautiful prayer, and it was a touching experience as i remembered thousands of times doing that as a family myself. 

one other cool update! we taught a philipino girl who just graduated university this week and had a great lesson. Her name is Geninne and what is cool about her is that we had given her a plan of salvation pamphlet when we met her on the street and she had read the beginning and loved the part about the pre earth life. she had been raised catholic but didnt really believe in all of its teachings, and she said the pre earth life made so much sense and she instantly believed it. it made me realize that jeffrey was very interested in the same exact thing and that we are so lucky to know about where we come from- ive always taken it for granted but without knowing that truth everything is so confusing and it just doesnt make sense anymore! the church is so true.

We went into london twice this week- so we had a lot of travelling but it was a good week. i love this gospel! and i love you guys! glad to hear oceanside was fun. thanks for the emails and the pictures, i love them!!! hahaha the cat tower looks sweet too. good work.

Love always,

Elder Jensen

Thought I'd send this little pic of what I started in my study journal.. Just cause me and elder Burgess thought my sketch of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was funny... Hope you enjoy! Just imagine that cloud as a celestial surfboard and they look like a couple of surfers 😂

There's 2 cause we wanted one in her garden and one in her living room where we always have the spiritual thought.

This is a locust bean... Apparently what John the Baptist ate in the wilderness. He didn't eat actual bugs he ate these beans! Super healthy. Super disgusting too but I ate half of it before my willpower gave.

Football on Saturday morning, Jeffrey and Jason's bday. Shoutout to Graham Bourne for my shirt.. He left it at our house and I took it with me and I don't think he's gunna want it back hahaha 

Week 63-August 8, 2016

Week 63-August 8, 2016

Colchester in August

Hey fam!

This week was a really good week, for a couple of reasons. First of
all, we had MLC and I got to see all my buddies and old companions and
then we had Zone meeting and although we gave a 3 hour long training
basically that the Missionary department in salt lake wanted us to
give it was good to see the whole zone. The Brethren have changed some
things in about 15 missions worldwide and we got selected as one of
them so we had a huge training and were introduced to new planning
guidelines and they're basically just trying to upgrade missionary
work so some other changes. It's pretty exciting- everything is
focused on people and their spiritual progression rather than filling
your days with activities that make you feel busy but don't produce
much in the way of results. I feel the work hastening! It's exciting
to see the good positive changes that have been made. At MLC they
needed a musical number so Elder Murri, Elder Skinner, Elder Withers
and I sang "the armies of Heleman" or whatever that song is called and
elder murri played along on the guitar. It was good- we have done a
couple of musical items together now and I really enjoy singing with
them- they're really good singers!

We taught Jeffrey about baptism after preparing so much. I learned so
much from my preparations to teach him- he thinks the same way Dad and
what I feel like is the same way I think too - very logically and
thoroughly. He is so sincere- as we showed him scriptures and taught
simply and bore testimony about the ordinance of baptism and receiving
the gift of the Holy Ghost I felt the spirit and I could see it
testifying to him as well. By the end of the lesson he said he
believed what we had taught and it made sense to him. Then later in
the week (Sunday evening) we took a brand new RM from the ward to
teach him and Jason with us and we had a powerful lesson again after
watching the 20 minute restoration film. They accepted a baptismal
date for the 27/8 but they still are searching for an answer from God
whether it is all true or not. Jeffrey said he already believes the
Book of Mormon is true from what he is read and thus that Joseph Smith
is a prophet but now is struggling to believe that we are the only
church that has authority from God. Jason on the other hand has never
been a religious guy but since he has been praying he said that he
felt something. He thinks it makes perfect sense for there to be one
true church but struggles to picture himself changing and becoming a
religious person since he never has been. So it is always an
incredible experience to teach them because they have such different
needs and personalities. Yet, they are both so committed and genuine.
I have already grown to love them. Please keep them in your prayers! I
know God will give them the answers they are looking for.

Other than that, it's been a great week and although a lot happened
that'll have to be all for this week. I love this gospel and this
church! And I love my Saviour and Heavenly Father. And I love you
guys! Thanks for all the support and the love you give me.

Love,
Elder Jensen

Zone Training Meeting Ipswich August 2016- got some new faces!!! But a lot of old ones too.

Our exchange with Elder Coon and Elder Chong from Singapore

Margaret Randall's cakes... We were trying to get our friend to take a picture with the cake but he ran away.. But I thought I'd send this one just to prove why it's hard not to gain weight when members feed you delicious food like this. Love them so much though! This ward is amazing.

Dad- I need you to show this to Bishop Daines, I got his letter and thought I'd take a selfie with sister Daines (his niece) while holding the letter to send to him.. How cool is that! 

MLC August 2016!

Gettin air with Elder Withers! 

Week 62-August 1, 2016

Week 62-August 1, 2016

Howdy ya'll!

Jason and Jeffrey are doing great! the two ghanian university students we have been teaching. we are really praying they will get answers to their prayers and their concerns will be resolved in time for them to be baptised on the 27th of august. Jason really wants to believe because he's never been that religious but he's been praying for the first time in his life and now he's reading the book of mormon and he says he feels something when he prays but then the feeling goes away when he goes about the rest of his day and he starts to doubt whether he really felt anything or not. Jeffrey is the more religious one of the two (they're twins) and he's puzzled because he always believed that baptism by water was done away with after christ and that all you had to do is believe in Jesus Christ and you'd be fine. So ive been studying baptism a lot lately and compiled a list of scriptures in the new testament about the apostles baptising by water even after Christ's death. The book of mormon is crystal clear on the whole subject (jesus makes it very clear in 3 nephi) but the bible is a little more vague. There is very solid evidence though so I just pray his heart softens and he feels good about it and that it ends up making sense to him. 

We drove to cambridge to do a couple baptismal interviews on saturday and it was BEAUTIFUL. Hands down my favorite drive to make- colchester to cambridge. It was sunset as we drove home and we went down a ton of back country roads through rolling green hills and stumbled across a huge castle. Apparently the castle in pride and prejudice.. but dont quote me on it cause im not positive thats just what we heard. Ill attach a pic. 

Got to spend some time with a couple of greenies this past week - one from utah and one from singapore and it was so nice to be with them. It reminded me that its been over a year since i was in their shoes- mind boggling. 

mom, we went to some outlet and for the first time (pretty much on my mission) i bought some stuff! i got 2 pairs of trousers they were super cheap and then a few ties that were also super cheap. Then i got 2 shirts as part of a deal- it was all in all super successful and ended up being under 50 £ for it all. I'm down to one pair of shoes though now (my ecco's) which a member kindly polished for me. Would it be ok if i got one pair of new shoes? so that i have one for nicer meetings and i can continue to use the eccos for all the work? after that shopping for the shirts and trousers my personal account is out. 

thanks for all the emails this week!

I loved this past week getting to do quite a bit more teaching than usual- we taught a lot of people and many of them were new. I just gained such a stronger testimony of the need for and the blessings that result from the Restoration. I cannot imagine what it would be like trying to find a church or religion that made sense (mainly speaking of christianity here) if there had been no restoration of the gospel in the 1800's. I do know that God lives and that if we just have eyes to see then there are so many miracles all around us.

Love,

Elder Jensen 

A funny sign we saw

Morning football. In my all white outfit..

A really pretty spot on the road home from Cambridge. Couldn't really capture the beautiful sunset behind us but on the bright side elder Burgess's hair is looking nice and orange! 

The castle park is right outside our apartment
building and they had a big concert.

the Castle

A nice panorama shot I took. Breathtaking spot- we just had to pull over

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