Corona Chaos Round 12000

This week was another crazy one! And oh boy is it a crazy time to be working with President Shumway! 

Because of the corona virus about 30 missionaries in our mission went home this week. And all this is happening right when we're planning transfers too so transfer plans are changing like every 5 seconds! It's been pretty wild! My entire MTC group went home so I'll be going home with a completely different group than I had ever imagined!

Elder Anderson and I drove some missionaries around who were transferring home, taking them to the stake center and the airport and stuff. Then like 6 areas closed so we drove their cars back to the office and had to drive separately so that was pretty interesting being without a companion for a little bit.

For most of the rest of the week it was just quarantine and video lessons! Pretty fun stuff that is about the same! Calling a lot of formers and any numbers of anybody we've ever contacted haha.

This week we're going to have our first ever zoom call MLC so that'll be cool! We're going to give a training at it and it's going to be sick!

Sorry to keep it short but quarantine life just doesn't leave much to explain about! Everyone have an amazing week!

Our calendar (besides video call lessons and mission training)

All the cars 

My HOMIES going home (sorry social distancing) 

Quarantine

This week it seems like we were continuing to learn more information every single day about how the corona virus would affect the mission, so it was pretty insane!

Tuesday we weren't in quarantine (yet) but we weren't allowed to knock doors, and the campus was closed, and we were pretty much in quarantine without actually being in it. Elder Anderson and I were planning a training that day for this week because we were having our zone conferences that we had to make smaller groups of 2 districts because we weren't allowed to do entire zones. So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we were traveling around the mission going to these meetings and giving a lot of Trainings which was super awesome.

Each day however they kept making it harder and harder for us to do these meetings! The first day we had a super cool program where we were able to meet together, and this seminary teacher in one of the wards came and taught, the 2nd day they said no more seminary teacher is allowed to come teach, and the 3rd day they said we couldn't meet in two districts any more, just one, so we had to split it up. Now we've still only hit half the mission and given our training like 10 times, and they won't even let us meet up as one district anymore! So I guess the rest will just have to be over technology.

So now we're quarantined officially, I'm happy we were at least able to go see half the mission. We stay in the apartment and do video lessons as much as we can, and then basically call everyone like 1000000 times, and then have legendarily long studies and planning sessions. It's been pretty crazy!

On Sunday we did come follow me as a YSA ward and we got to teach it! Pretty legendary having a lesson on Jacob 5-7. We did have this one girl named Natalie who we've been teaching over video just about every single day and she joined for the church lesson and was probably super confused haha. There isn't really the same fellowship with church over video as there is in person, but the members have been super down to join in tons of lessons! It's been super awesome!

Something really sad I learned this week is I'll have to return home 3 months early in May due to all the missions closing down around the world. I'm really bummed, but at least I'll have been able to serve 21 months and have many life changing experiences I'll never forget and am really grateful for. Stinking corona. :( 

Anyways there is going to be some huge changes in the mission with lots of missionaries going home and lots of missionaries from foreign missions coming out. It's going to be wild!!

Elder Jensen 

Corona Chaos

Well this week started out pretty normal! We had planned 3 exchanges back to back because we get to do a lot of those! 

Our first exchange I got to go to a place way up in Northern Illinois called Woodstock. This place is legendary! It reminded me so much of Hebron because it's in the middle of nowhere! I got to go with the legendary elder Castleton and knock a lot of doors and have a lot of fun! We found some new people that day who let us in their house - a family. It was a miracle. They were saying that all the craziness in the world from the virus was a sign from God that they had to start coming back to Him and getting things together. 

Pretty cool how the chaos gets people humbled up and thinking. We knocked on this one door and this old white dude was like "If I gave you a free cross would you take it?" and I was like "sure why not." Dude comes back out with these two wooden crosses and says "God bless you gentlemen." while I'm frantically like "WAIT! after centuries of being lost......" door shuts. We'll, and least I got a free cross! So that exchange was phenomenal.

Then the next day we were planning on having Elder Anderson leave because it was a Spanish area in the city, but he messed up his ankle on Pday so I left the area again to go with a missionary named Elder Artis to my old zone on the Northside! Except in Spanish.... Didn't understand a thing and everytime I saw a not hespanic I was booking it over to them. It was a way good time though and super fun to be on a bike again.

For the third exchange we had to cancel it due to poor scheduling (our bad) but it was slammed that day. I think I had one of the best days of my mission on this Thursday where we literally taught lesson after lesson on campus. We were SO BUSY! We found several new people, and Elder Anderson and I were getting so hyped about how this area is going to boom! 

Then we got like 5 missed calls during one lesson and found out that church is cancelled and that the world is currently falling apart. And then we went to one more lesson and she told us campus is closing next week. So our superior force of finding has just been taken from us in the blink of an eye, but we're blessed to have found 8 people this week that we've already been able to meet with some of them not at the campus, but at other places.

So then the entire mission is freaking out because they don't know what to do for church and they're wondering if they should quit working and book it to Costco and starting stocking up like everyone else because it feels like it's the end of the world or a zombie apocalypse or something and so we put together this big video call with all the zone leaders and we went to president's house and answered a lot of questions about what were going to do. So we make some plans where instead of church, we'll get those we're teaching to go to a members house on Sunday for a come follow me lesson. 

Then the next day we get word that our missionaries aren't allowed to knock doors anymore! Now our missionaries were really freaking out haha! Besides the city zones or the YSA wards (which is pretty much where I've been the majority of my mission) most areas in the mission have a lot of knocking doors. So maybe the lord is calling our mission to repentance that we're not using members or the technology as much as we should be. So we've gone to president's like every night this week to do these big video calls with all the zone leaders and Sister training leaders where we just figure things out because everyone is paranoid. We've had a few late nights this week so when we woke up one morning to go to the gym we have in the apartment I literally ran into the glass door haha! Not even messing around it was way funny!

Although everything is falling apart and we're not able to work the way we want to, we are learning a lot about how to be creative because we're being forced to be creative. They even cancelled our zone conference because it's a "big meeting." so now this next week we're going to travel around the mission and give Training about how to use technology to find which frankly I've never done because I thought it was dumb so pray for me that I'll be humble enough to accept that I can't always find the elect in the way that I want to haha. So we're having a lot of changes! But we're not trapped in our apartments which is nice and hopefully we won't be.

We found this one girl this week named Jaylen and she's pretty solid! We've met with her twice and she came to do come follow me at a members house with us yesterday! We might get a baptism without ever getting someone to actual church! How cool is that!?

Well everyone stay safe and healthy don't let this Corona get to you and if you do beat it because it's lame and causing me to not talk to as many people as I want to. But oh how great at marvelous are the mysteries of the lord! We are excited to see where this takes us!!

Elder Jensen 

YSA Life

This week was awesome! I got thrown right into it all super fast and am loving it here in Naperville zone! It's kinda weird though because in the YSA we cover like 5 zones so our area is massive.

On transfers we got dropped off and I had to say goodbye to my boy Elder Christensen and tears were shed (not really but he is a legend) and then I got my new comp Elder Anderson! And the first thing we did is lead a meeting for all the new missionaries, which was awesome! There were only three new missionaries, so it was a small group, but it was awesome!

We hit a campus every day not far from our apartment called the college of DuPage. It's pretty weird to be on the campus again but it's pretty legendary too! YSA's are super open to talking to us about anything, so it makes it pretty easy. Of course though 4 out of the 5 we found this week have already dropped us though haha.

We have this sick homie we're teaching named Eli who goes to the college. He's in a wheel chair from a shooting on the Southside. Got shot in the spine and is paralyzed from the chest down, but has full movement in his arms. This dude can move! When we teach him he's always trying to balance and do wheelies in his wheelchair. He's super chill and is way pumped to get baptized this weekend. 

Also on Sunday it was my birthday and also Eli's birthday and so President had us come by for dinner and Eli got to meet president and it was SICK!!! President Shumway is an amazing member missionary, it's no wonder he is a mission president!

Other than that the real craziness is going to start next week with like 4 exchanges in a row and new missionary training on Friday! It's going to be amazing!!!

Elder Jensen 

Some random pics from a while back and the empty campus on Friday afternoon (weekends are YSA missionaries worst nightmares)

Elder Anderson and I at the office

Unexpected Transfer

This week was one of the most incredible weeks in my entire mission! I know I start off a lot of these emails like that, but it really was! Got some super good work done and saw some super incredible miracles. 

It's crazy because although I've only been in Lakeshore 2 for one transfer I'll be leaving this transfer and going to be the assistant to the president. Back to the good ol Naperville Zone out west! The AP's cover the west Chicago YSA ward so it's kinda cool I will have hit both the YSA wards the mission has. It's going to be awesome and I'm excited to see what's next in the life of missionary work and missionary leadership!

My new companion will be Elder Anderson and he's a legend and a Spanish missionary. They usually have one English assistant and one Spanish assistant because of all the exchanges. It's going to be way fun! I'm sad to leave Lake Shore 2 this fast though, I have grown to love this place quite a bit in our short amount of time here! Miracle after miracle! 

This last week in the area has been incredible. We had 5 people come to church and we were way excited about that, especially because we opened it! We also found some families this week to add to our teaching pool! This area is incredible! 

We went to church with our friends Jenipher and her daughter Prescious. They are awesome and it was fun riding the train with them down town to go to church! 

We also had our friends Robert and Carl come to church. These are two dudes from the hood of Chicago so it was super fun going to church with them as well. Robert only has one tooth and had a big smile on his face at church and told us, "I like this! I wanna come back again!" He's a legend haha. 

This week we had MLC to set a goal for March and April, and were trying to break a mission baptismal record in March. It's going to be incredible and we have been able to see the Lord prepare people to be able to reach it this month. I got to go on double exchanges with my main man Elder Safley so that was super fun! We also put together our zone meeting for the next day and gave an awesome training about finding people! I love giving trainings a lot! Also Elder Safley is a wizard, so how could I not love giving trainings when he is helping me?! President also came to the zone meeting too so that was pretty cool! 

Other than that we had an exchange with a set of YSA elders and I took an elder here with me named Elder Ebert. It's way cool because his older brother served in the exact same mission as my older brother Jase, and since California Arcadia Armenian speaking is probably a minority were assuming they were in the same district at one point. It's a small world! 

Man this place is so awesome! I'm going to miss it so much but maybe I'll get sent back at the end of my mission. (On a better note I won't have to eat any Nigerian food for a little while haha)

Have an awesome week!

Elder Jensen

Train rides to church 

Elder Ebert 

Good Friend Sam Passey from YSA last year

Exchanges with the AP's