Good morning!
I've got some news. I'm actually not with Elder White any more. Mid-transfer shift. I'm in North Shore now with two companions. The trio. Elder Ward and Elder Kaufusi. Elder Kaufusi was actually Elder White's companion before I came. I replaced him before and now I'm with him! Both Elder Ward and Elder Kaufusi were my zone leaders at at different points in my mission. They're great missionaries. Funny as. I've nearly died of laughter a few times this last week.
It's been a pretty exhausting week. Had to wake up early as several times to travel all over the place, which was great, but church was ridiculously hard to stay awake in, as were a few other meetings we had throughout the week. I'm a zombie.
I was transferred before the baptisms on Saturday that I told you about last week, but luckily I was able to make it back for them. Sister Kneebone, Willie, and Luke are baptized! What a blessing! The computer wants me to type "baptised" the way they spell it here. It was a great service though. They surpisedly (it's a word, trust me...) called me up to share some thoughts, seeing as I just left.
The mission just finished this month up with 88 souls saved in the month of February. One of the lowest baptizing months in a couple years. It's really painful to see the mission in such bad shape. We'll pick up, but the question right now is how? I really love this mission with all my heart and hope that things will turn around soon. It's interesting the things that you learn as you sit amongst fellow missionaries (we had zone conference last week). You can discern those that are really trying their best and have faith in the Lord. It's in their countenance. If you think you can get away with being dishonest and selfish, you're wrong! It just can't happen because you can literally feel and see the light that comes from a person who is making righteous decisions and serves the Lord with all their strength -- and the lack thereof from those who don't. Taking the time to make sure your desires are in the right place can greatly bless those around you. CHOOSE to have a good attitude. Others feel it!
Well, I love you guys, like always. I'm grateful to have such good examples. One thing that just inspires me is the willingness from each of you to make the best of what the Lord is challenging you with. Keep it up! Thanks for your letters, packages, and especially the prayers. It's a miracle that I haven't fallen apart yet. Divine intervention for sure. Much appreciated.
Elder Ward... writing a novel over here.... I will become a fast typist someday! Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Jensen
P.S. Repent and be baptized.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Change...
Dear Family,
Wow, it is ridiculous how fast everything is changing. I honestly can't believe it. I think I got a glimpse of it as I read your emails today. Everyone is old as! You're all dinosaurs. I'm still the same age though.... The best thing to hear, though, is that you each seem to be using the most of your time. I love to hear of how everyone is growing in the gospel. I'm impressed and inspired! Keep up the good work. It makes me want to work harder so I can keep up with all of you.
My companion, Elder White, is the man. Just everyone knows. He is obedient to the days, he loves the work, and he doesn't waste time. He's really taught me about work ethic and how important it is to give our all to the Saviour. And he's funny as! We have good times every day. It's good to be with him. We've been blessed to have a few more souls going into the water this weekend. I'm excited for them! The Spirit does amazing things.
Oh, I want to let you know about a rule for missionaries. Dinner should last no more than one hour! Every second longer disqualifies them for the Spirit and saving more souls. This is worldwide, so if you have some questionable missionaries, please ask them to leave after their hour is up. Someday, they'll be grateful.
Miracles: Lots of them. Always. On Saturday, Elder White and I made a goal to talk to 100 people with a smile! It was mean. We were sprinting and having a grand ol' time. One member even even pulled over on the street and stopped me, asking if everything was alright -- I told him we were saving souls and had no time to waste! Next time I saw him he called me Marathon Man or something like that. We ended up having a great day and found a family of five who we are now teaching. After three visits Sunday morning before church from us and two members, two of the five ended up coming to church and are excited as for "the water thing" on the 10th of March. What do you reckon? Is this not a mighty miracle? We were so happy and we know that the Lord loves His children, but He waits to see if we will qualify to be a part of Jesus Christ's work. Remember Steve? I think I talked about him and how he was such a miracle and we set him for baptism and stuff like that? Well, Steve is bipolar. But that's alright because we talked to his son on the street on Saturday (the day of miracles) and arranged a ride to church. He came, he loved it, and he's going to be baptized this weekend! He is such a smart kid. He talks much more maturely than most adults around here and he's only 13. He's also my height. Crazy. Also, Willie is getting baptized; he is a massive miracle, but I'm running out of time because of some administrative stuff that we need to take care of, including taking yet another missionary to the airport.
Well, I love you guys and I'm very grateful for all your emails. I love hearing how each of you is doing. Please keep reading the Book of Mormon every day. I promise if you do that the Spirit will come into your life more strongly than ever before, you will receive direction on many of the decisions that you need to make, and you will be more prepared to meet Christ whenever He calls you back. Love you, bye!
Love,
Elder Jensen
Wow, it is ridiculous how fast everything is changing. I honestly can't believe it. I think I got a glimpse of it as I read your emails today. Everyone is old as! You're all dinosaurs. I'm still the same age though.... The best thing to hear, though, is that you each seem to be using the most of your time. I love to hear of how everyone is growing in the gospel. I'm impressed and inspired! Keep up the good work. It makes me want to work harder so I can keep up with all of you.
My companion, Elder White, is the man. Just everyone knows. He is obedient to the days, he loves the work, and he doesn't waste time. He's really taught me about work ethic and how important it is to give our all to the Saviour. And he's funny as! We have good times every day. It's good to be with him. We've been blessed to have a few more souls going into the water this weekend. I'm excited for them! The Spirit does amazing things.
Oh, I want to let you know about a rule for missionaries. Dinner should last no more than one hour! Every second longer disqualifies them for the Spirit and saving more souls. This is worldwide, so if you have some questionable missionaries, please ask them to leave after their hour is up. Someday, they'll be grateful.
Miracles: Lots of them. Always. On Saturday, Elder White and I made a goal to talk to 100 people with a smile! It was mean. We were sprinting and having a grand ol' time. One member even even pulled over on the street and stopped me, asking if everything was alright -- I told him we were saving souls and had no time to waste! Next time I saw him he called me Marathon Man or something like that. We ended up having a great day and found a family of five who we are now teaching. After three visits Sunday morning before church from us and two members, two of the five ended up coming to church and are excited as for "the water thing" on the 10th of March. What do you reckon? Is this not a mighty miracle? We were so happy and we know that the Lord loves His children, but He waits to see if we will qualify to be a part of Jesus Christ's work. Remember Steve? I think I talked about him and how he was such a miracle and we set him for baptism and stuff like that? Well, Steve is bipolar. But that's alright because we talked to his son on the street on Saturday (the day of miracles) and arranged a ride to church. He came, he loved it, and he's going to be baptized this weekend! He is such a smart kid. He talks much more maturely than most adults around here and he's only 13. He's also my height. Crazy. Also, Willie is getting baptized; he is a massive miracle, but I'm running out of time because of some administrative stuff that we need to take care of, including taking yet another missionary to the airport.
Well, I love you guys and I'm very grateful for all your emails. I love hearing how each of you is doing. Please keep reading the Book of Mormon every day. I promise if you do that the Spirit will come into your life more strongly than ever before, you will receive direction on many of the decisions that you need to make, and you will be more prepared to meet Christ whenever He calls you back. Love you, bye!
Love,
Elder Jensen
Monday, February 13, 2012
There is no end to miracles
Dear Palagi Pepelos,
Haha you don't even know what that says, unless you're Samoan, in which case it wouldn't apply. This week was really good. All the weeks are really good. If there's one thing that I've learned from this area, it would be this: the only thing stopping us is us. My vision of what can be accomplished is just going through the roof. The Lord has so much He needs us to be doing and we just need to rise to the task. When you set your eyes on the Savior and don't look back, all things are possible. I just had this thought as I was talking with Elder White and reading some negative stuff that someone sent him about the church. (By the way, Dad, to answer your question, it just started raining right now -- sorry, back to the point). This was my thought though: Doubt comes from disobedience. If you want to know the gospel is true, do what I did and live the way the gospel says until you do know it's true. If you want to increase your faith, increase your obedience! I know Jesus Christ lives still today and that this is His church -- more than just a religion, but eternal life. I really love you guys and I just want you to be happy. Please live the gospel. Please be obedient to everything.
Thanks for all the emails -- really appreciate it. We had some great things happening last week, but this is all I'm writing today. Please send your complaints to sassy10goozit@comcast.net. Thank you. One of the best feelings in the world is the feeling of accomplishment -- setting a goal and achieving it. Goals are important and thinking to the future is crucial. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Hey, that reminds me of Vanhin Pope. I hope his teaches are going well. Okay bye!
Love,
Elder Jensen
Haha you don't even know what that says, unless you're Samoan, in which case it wouldn't apply. This week was really good. All the weeks are really good. If there's one thing that I've learned from this area, it would be this: the only thing stopping us is us. My vision of what can be accomplished is just going through the roof. The Lord has so much He needs us to be doing and we just need to rise to the task. When you set your eyes on the Savior and don't look back, all things are possible. I just had this thought as I was talking with Elder White and reading some negative stuff that someone sent him about the church. (By the way, Dad, to answer your question, it just started raining right now -- sorry, back to the point). This was my thought though: Doubt comes from disobedience. If you want to know the gospel is true, do what I did and live the way the gospel says until you do know it's true. If you want to increase your faith, increase your obedience! I know Jesus Christ lives still today and that this is His church -- more than just a religion, but eternal life. I really love you guys and I just want you to be happy. Please live the gospel. Please be obedient to everything.
Thanks for all the emails -- really appreciate it. We had some great things happening last week, but this is all I'm writing today. Please send your complaints to sassy10goozit@comcast.net. Thank you. One of the best feelings in the world is the feeling of accomplishment -- setting a goal and achieving it. Goals are important and thinking to the future is crucial. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Hey, that reminds me of Vanhin Pope. I hope his teaches are going well. Okay bye!
Love,
Elder Jensen
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Talofa au pito
Malo lelei whanau!
It's been another great week. Erana Moka-Vaega got baptized on Saturday. It was miracle. It's always a miracle. Elders have been teaching her for months so it's about time. She has had so many doubts because her brother is a member of another church and unfortunately he is rather fond of filling her head with anti-mormon stuff. Luckily our member fellowship saved the day by always following the Spirit and being there to comfort Erana whenever she needed it. The fellowship, Latitia, is a convert as well. Members are so ridiculously important. The most successful wards I've seen are the ones where the members are very friendly and warm to any visitors, including people visiting from other wards, less actives, and nonmembers. Ponder that.... Anyway, Erana is great and is going to be an awesome member.
We had this other crazy miracle the other day when we were driving. We forgot to call the members we were supposed to be having a kai (meal) with, so we were in the process of driving over there to see if they were still expecting us. Then we got this phone call from a fella with a really goofy high voice, almost whining, saying that we missed our appointment we set up with him and that he's been waiting. So we told him we'd come right then. We thought it was kind of weird, because NO ONE does that. If someone calls you as a missionary, they're practically already in the water. So we drove over to the address that Michael Jackson said he stayed at and... the address didn't exist! Good one, eh? So we thought, and I quote, "Yup." Sounds about right. So Elder White, inspired elder that he is, decided that we ought to knock the last house just before the non-existent prank address (by the way, they say "crank call" here, not "prank call"). As we neared the door, a lady came out and asked if we were looking for Steve. Very smoothly, we looked at each other and said, "Is he here?" she went and got him, and he invited us in. He said he was taught by some other missionaries a few months ago and told us about how he thought there shouldn't just be heaven and hell, but places where we get rewarded according to our actions and desires. He also said that he didn't think that heaven should be a place where angels fly around singing and playing harps -- heaven should be a place where you are with your family forever, whereas hell should be living without your family and being regretful. Ha. Can you say Plan of Salvation? We sure could. Anyway, I wonder how those "crank callers" would feel about being the means of the Lord bringing about the salvation of men?
I write slowly, so I need to write less today. So just a few more stories:
We were exactly on time for a lesson we had set up last week, which doesn't happen very often, and the person wasn't there, but something else that was pretty neat happened (are you sensing a pattern here? The Lord works in mysterious ways). As we walked back to the car, a man leaned out the window of a nearby house and beckoned us. We thought about leaving him hanging, then decided to go. Nah, we were really excited to go. So he told us about how he was supposed to meet some other missionaries later that night but he wasn't going to make it and it was just a miracle that we were walking by. So we set him for baptism! It was real swell. What a miracle! His name is Eddy.
Sister kneebone is this interested as lady who came to church for the first time and loved it and is set to baptized at the end of the month! There are so many great miracles here but I'm tired of typing and I still have to write our mission president. So thanks for listening. Happy birthday Mum! That's what these people would say.
I'm loving this area. Any area is the best. If there's any advice I'd give to the young men thinking about serving missions, it would be this: be worthy now, not tomorrow or next week, and keep in mind that soon you will represent the Lord and every decision you make now will determine how many people you can help and how great of an effect you can have on them in a few years' or months' time.
Love you guys. Have a great week. Thanks for the emails family! Heavenly Father hears your prayers. It is one of the greatest tools we have been given in this life.
Love,
Elder Jensen
It's been another great week. Erana Moka-Vaega got baptized on Saturday. It was miracle. It's always a miracle. Elders have been teaching her for months so it's about time. She has had so many doubts because her brother is a member of another church and unfortunately he is rather fond of filling her head with anti-mormon stuff. Luckily our member fellowship saved the day by always following the Spirit and being there to comfort Erana whenever she needed it. The fellowship, Latitia, is a convert as well. Members are so ridiculously important. The most successful wards I've seen are the ones where the members are very friendly and warm to any visitors, including people visiting from other wards, less actives, and nonmembers. Ponder that.... Anyway, Erana is great and is going to be an awesome member.
We had this other crazy miracle the other day when we were driving. We forgot to call the members we were supposed to be having a kai (meal) with, so we were in the process of driving over there to see if they were still expecting us. Then we got this phone call from a fella with a really goofy high voice, almost whining, saying that we missed our appointment we set up with him and that he's been waiting. So we told him we'd come right then. We thought it was kind of weird, because NO ONE does that. If someone calls you as a missionary, they're practically already in the water. So we drove over to the address that Michael Jackson said he stayed at and... the address didn't exist! Good one, eh? So we thought, and I quote, "Yup." Sounds about right. So Elder White, inspired elder that he is, decided that we ought to knock the last house just before the non-existent prank address (by the way, they say "crank call" here, not "prank call"). As we neared the door, a lady came out and asked if we were looking for Steve. Very smoothly, we looked at each other and said, "Is he here?" she went and got him, and he invited us in. He said he was taught by some other missionaries a few months ago and told us about how he thought there shouldn't just be heaven and hell, but places where we get rewarded according to our actions and desires. He also said that he didn't think that heaven should be a place where angels fly around singing and playing harps -- heaven should be a place where you are with your family forever, whereas hell should be living without your family and being regretful. Ha. Can you say Plan of Salvation? We sure could. Anyway, I wonder how those "crank callers" would feel about being the means of the Lord bringing about the salvation of men?
I write slowly, so I need to write less today. So just a few more stories:
We were exactly on time for a lesson we had set up last week, which doesn't happen very often, and the person wasn't there, but something else that was pretty neat happened (are you sensing a pattern here? The Lord works in mysterious ways). As we walked back to the car, a man leaned out the window of a nearby house and beckoned us. We thought about leaving him hanging, then decided to go. Nah, we were really excited to go. So he told us about how he was supposed to meet some other missionaries later that night but he wasn't going to make it and it was just a miracle that we were walking by. So we set him for baptism! It was real swell. What a miracle! His name is Eddy.
Sister kneebone is this interested as lady who came to church for the first time and loved it and is set to baptized at the end of the month! There are so many great miracles here but I'm tired of typing and I still have to write our mission president. So thanks for listening. Happy birthday Mum! That's what these people would say.
I'm loving this area. Any area is the best. If there's any advice I'd give to the young men thinking about serving missions, it would be this: be worthy now, not tomorrow or next week, and keep in mind that soon you will represent the Lord and every decision you make now will determine how many people you can help and how great of an effect you can have on them in a few years' or months' time.
Love you guys. Have a great week. Thanks for the emails family! Heavenly Father hears your prayers. It is one of the greatest tools we have been given in this life.
Love,
Elder Jensen
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