The Doctrines of the Kingdom are True

First off I got to go on exchanges to the west side (which honestly seems even rougher than the south side) I finally got to go with my boy Elder Bell from the MTC!! It was probably one of the most legendary exchanges of all time. We were on bikes and rode through the west side at superior speeds. Of course walking around everybody sees the white shirt and tie and asks us for change and of course we don't but we share some of "the word" with them haha. 

Also like tons of people are making these tiny little snow cone stands where they buy syrup and some small pieces of ice (like there are pretty pathetic snow cones) but I'm eating these things up because snow cones are my weakness! They are literally on like every corner. 

We were also able to have our first Mission leadership council with President Shumway this week which was pretty cool. It's interesting to see the different teaching style and goal setting than what we used to do with President Bingham. It'll be super cool to have two mission presidents. 

That person named Darlene I mentioned last week is still so solid. We taught her the plan of salvation and it literally took like 3 visits to get the whole thing because we're not supposed to stay longer than 45 min haha. She literally is the most prepared person I've ever taught. She has so many great questions and excellent understanding. It's really cool to see the light bulbs go off in her head over and over and over again. It reminds me of how all missionaries are when they are taught the plan of salvation in the MTC and they're all like super shook like "wow this makes Mega sense but I've never realized it until right now."

We taught her about the fall and when she figured it out for the rest of the lesson she was like "oh wow. OH WOW! You’re right! God doesn't make mistakes! This was all part of his plan! Why don't people know this! Why don't people listen to you guys! OH WOW!" She called us later that night and had read 2 Nephi 2, 2 Nephi 9, and was literally shook. When we taught her the rest of the plan with the three kingdoms we decided to bring her a large print Book of Mormon which has the Doctrine and Covenants in the back so decided to introduce the classic Bible scriptures that talk about the three kingdoms in Corinthians but also introduced the Doctrine and Covenants.

Well she came to church on Sunday, and told us she had read all of Doctrine and Covenants section 76, the Articles of Faith, the Official Declarations, the Book of Moses and is in 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon. She told us she believes it’s all true and has been praying to Heavenly Father for this for a while. SO AWESOME! She’s probably like one of the most fun people to teach. We set a date for her to be baptized that night. (In the South side you'll find so many flakes that we don't put them on date until they come to church the first time, because literally everyone would accept to be baptized probably before you teach them.) Darlene told us her only concern was she was reading the Book of Mormon more than "the word" and was wondering if that was wrong but then she told us God answered her and said that it is "the word" and it's her first time learning about it so it's definitely OK. 

For the rest of the week we had a lot of teaching opportunities and an awesome one was for a guy we're teaching named Chukwudi. He's getting baptized on Saturday and we went over the interview questions and it has been a remarkable repentance process. The man gave up a lot of things cold turkey and hasn't even looked back. It's been absolutely amazing and we're excited to see him enter the waters of baptism. Weeks leading up to baptisms are like the most stressful things on the planet, so this week's going to be insane but I'm pumped! 

Oh and last thing, on Sundays we schedule quite a few of lessons because generally all the Nigerians are off work that day. Every Sunday so far we've been fed some Nigerian food, but yesterday we got fed twice in a row. These Nigerians don't just give you a little. They give you a portion size "for a man," however I am not a man with a fufu gut haha. Yesterday we had fufu and agusi twice and I was more than full after the first! That stuff is super heavy!

Fufu is just like this play dough looking stuff that you dip in soup and then just eat it. It's pretty interesting. Agusi is this interesting soup that has a variety of meats and vegetables (and it had some Jamaican peppers and I was sweating, this stuff was almost as spicy as the Indian food!) but I got to try some cow leg, cow intestine, goat meat, you know the basics. I can't say it tastes like chicken. All the meat is like super rubbery. Even the chicken, so maybe it does taste like chicken. But if you don't eat it all they can be offended so thank goodness Elder Vantassell can pound it because I was super stuffed haha. It was pretty awesome! 

Hope everyone has an absolutely amazing week! 

Elder Jensen 

Probably Just Fireworks, Right?

This was another super busy amazing week! We were able to see a lot of miracles and find a lot more people to teach! 

One super cool miracle is there was an older African American lady who asked us if she could have a free Bible! She lived in the building where just about all of our Nigerian friends live so it was of no inconvenience. We dropped by and her name was Darlene, we asked if we could share a message with her. We walked in her apartment and there were literally pictures of Jesus everywhere, 3 huge study bibles lying around. She loves Jesus and praying and reading the Bible. I thought "OK this is either going to be really good or really bad." We were able to give Darlene her Bible and teach her about the restoration. I kid you not this lesson felt like it was in the district or something it was like a perfect lesson! She was so engaged and when we mentioned the Book of Mormon her eyes went super wide and she snatched that thing out of our hands super-fast!

We talked about the Book of Mormon and what it is and she was freaking out and was so excited to read it! We left her with the invitation to read it and came back a couple of days later. When we came back she had these little decorations on her Book of Mormon and she told us she had read 7 chapters, and had lots of questions. She told us one of her main questions was why we were elders when we were so young! Then she mentioned that she had asked God this question and found a picture of Jesus as a 12 year old teaching soon after and felt like God had answered her questions. She literally showed us her notes that she took while she was reading and I'm pretty sure she knows how to study the Book of Mormon and seek revelation way better than I do! She’s super awesome and it was a really awesome experience to teach her! She also said she's going to make it to church this next week so we're pumped! 

Also we taught this other lady named Virgie who is fluent in Ebonics and every time it says "ye" in the Book of Mormon she changes it to "y’all." I was trying so hard not to laugh during our lesson it was awesome haha. "And when y’all receive these things are y’all finna ask God or what?" - Moroni 10 Virgie style

So there's this religion on the Southside and they're called Hebrew Israelites. Naturally they believe Jesus was black and that all African American people are the real descendants of the Jews and that they are the only people who have the privilege of being called the house of Israel. They stand on the corner of the streets on the weekends in these long purple robes and yell through a megaphone for like 3 hours. They also refuse to shake our hands, I'm not sure if it’s because they don't like white people, or missionaries. But these people crack me up.

One thing is for sure though; they're definitely not the elect, so we generally try to avoid them. Besides all they'll ask is like "what color is Jesus?" and of course they'll pull out the scripture that says Christ's feet were like brass or something like that. You just have to say "It doesn't matter if he was black brown white or green as long as he's my Savior," and they pretty much lose their minds and condemn you to hell. It’s one of those things where you're like "wow bro I'm literally telling you that the authority from God to bind families eternally has been restored, and all you have to offer is knowledge of Christ's skin color." 

We had our legendary 4th of July this week which was literally insane. Usually holidays are awful but we were still able to have 7 lessons that day which I was pumped about. That night there were so many fireworks (well I think they were fireworks) that it sounded like we were in a battle zone or something. 

We were able to meet our new mission president this week president Shumway and his family. He's a younger guy and has 4 kids, ones on a mission and the other 3 are still in school! I really admire him and his family for coming out on a mission with all the kids still in school. It'd be super crazy to take on that role of being a mission president. He's a really awesome man and I'm excited to learn a lot from him! 

We went on exchanges this week and I went to the Morgan Park ward with Elder west! We spent most of our time in a neighborhood called Chatham (still on the Southside, the Southside is huge, the city is huge!) but it's where Chance the rapper grew up, so that's pretty cool. Of course Elder Dodson told me how easy it was to contact down there because that's where he served so all I had to do was say to some neighborhood homie walking around "Hey brother, did you get your daily dose of the word?" And he just comes walking right over to me and we talk about God and they all say the same things about God, "Well he woke me up this morning man, every day is a blessing." Then you share a scripture and pretty much always get their phone number and address, and there is a pretty high chance you'll never see them again. 

On the exchange we contacted this one lady right outside her car and we were just talking about how she was doing and she told us not so good and says "this happened last night" and her car had tons of bullet holes in it and the windows were shattered! Pretty crazy business happens after 11:00 it sounds like haha. I honestly don't get why so many shootings happen here because like these are some nice people. This place is fantastic! I must admit though I have never seen so many cops in my life! It’s super crazy! I'm sure if anybody wants to be a cop there are plenty of job openings on the Southside of Chicago! 

There is a law of opposition in all things. Chicago might be a super corrupt city, but there are so many elect here on the Southside it's unreal. It's been an absolutely amazing miracle and privilege to be able to be a part of it! 

Hope everyone has and awesome week! 

Elder Jensen

Pics:

Exchanges  

This is flippin America

Black Jesus and Black Captain America -- this must be the Southside 

For some reason all the Nigerian kids love playing with my hair 

From India to Africa in the Blink of an Eye

Oh my goodness gracious. This has absolutely been one of the most eventful weeks in my entire mission. 

My new area: the Hyde Park ward. Now there are 4 sets of missionaries in the Hyde Park ward. I'm convinced this is one of the highest baptizing wards in the United States. My new companion and I cover an area called Englewood. 

Englewood is like the Promised Land. You occasionally hear gunshots in the distance, see people peel out of nowhere trying to run from the homicide they just committed, you know the usual haha. There are cops like everywhere. We're like the only people who are white and now when you see a white person you're like "that guy looks ridiculous what is he even doing here." However this area is extremely busy, and it's because the missionaries have found an extremely high concentration of Nigerians in this area.

Nigerians are generally the most elect people you'll ever find -- humble and open-minded, ready to receive the gospel. In our area there is one building, we call it the Lowe building. It is so big and probably has 1000 people living in it, 800 of which are Nigerians. It's absolutely phenomenal. The missionaries here got one referral from that building (it's a building with security so you couldn't just walk in) and then they asked them if they know any friends, and then they asked them if they'd have any friends and on and on. There have been like 20 converts in this one building.

This week we had literally 7 baptisms, from that one building. The Hyde Park ward has so many baptisms that they only do a baptismal service once a month so that ward members can come and support! It’s insane. So although my new area might be super sketchy it's really not because we are actually in this building teaching Nigerian people all day. They are some of the most amazing people I've ever gotten to meet! 

So this week I got to learn a ton about the African culture! Our ward has had so many Nigerians joining in the last year, that at this point it’s probably 15% Nigerian. Our missionaries are now able to travel slightly outside of the area to nearer wards to teach Nigerians. There are so many Nigerians in the ward that we were able to get general authority approval to do it! So this week the ward had a super awesome event called Nigeria night! They had plenty of different African dishes, African dancing African clothes, etc. One of the people we were teaching gave me a Kampala so we were walking into Nigeria night looking extra fly. It was super awesome! 

So the two families who got baptized this weekend are absolutely amazing. I was really only able to help teach the last couple lessons to help prepare them for baptism, but it was super exciting! one is a single mom named precious, who has like 5 kids. They have some pretty gnarly African names like "Goodluck," "Goodness," and "Goodnews." They are some of the most prepared and elect people I've ever seen! Another family was a couple with their son, named Segun, Victoria, and Nifemi. They are also super elect! We’ve been able to find some more elect this week because the Nigerians are so good at giving us referrals! The missionary work excitement is spreading like wildfire throughout the ward and this single building is seriously probably going to be like 50% members of the church within 2 years. However people move in an out constantly as well which means more people to find and teach! 

We also teach a few African American people, some living in the building and others living outside the building. They excessively use the word finna and it's pretty legendary. 

My new companion is named Elder Van Tassell and he's pretty much a Santa Clara Gubler boy,  the rancher, farmer, wrestler, fisher with a toothpick always in his mouth sorta guy. The man exercises like crazy in the morning and I swear he has like infinite energy. It's super hard to keep up with him haha! He wakes up early to exercise and goes to bed as late as he can to study. He says that a missionary who gets more than 8 hours of sleep isn't doing it right. The man is a flipping beast!

Oh! And I finally saw Elder Avery schmutz at transfers! He was just getting ready to get headed home! But it was pretty cool to see someone from the home ward! 

I'd say that's about it for my week! This place is the Promised Land! I've never been more tired than now but I've never been happier either! Hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Elder Jensen 

Goodbye Naperville

Hello everybody! This week was the last week of the transfer and it has been absolutely amazing! First off we got our transfer calls last night, and our area will be closing :( but it will not be in vain because I have never learned more than I have in this area. My awesome companion, Elder Dodson, has taught me so much and I've learned a ton from him. I don't think I've ever knocked doors as much as I have here! It’s been a crazy time! 

So Elder Dodson will be going to the Chicago YSA where I was born into this great mission. He will be able to continue the work that my papi and I were doing! As for me…I guess the homie who pulled out the gun on us last week was foretelling the future because I will be going to serve in the Hyde Park ward in the south side of Chicago! It’s also known as Englewood, which is supposedly a pretty dangerous place, and I would ask my mom to not look it up on internet. But I'm soooo pumped! I will also be the only white person within quite a large radius besides my companion whose name is Elder VanTassel. Elder Dodson says it will be quite a culture shock so I'm super pumped! And I get to stay zone leader and go to MLC and have revelation poured into my mind! Yay! 

So some highlights of the week: 

I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Harker, who is an elder from enterprise. He actually comes from a polygamist background until he was baptized at the age of 18. He has an amazing conversion story that was pretty cool to hear about. He actually served in this area a year ago so he got to see all the old stuff and had dinner with some of his favorite members here. 

My second exchange was in Wheaton with Elder Weinmuller. Wheaton has the most churches per captia in the United States so a lot of people answered the door like "Do you know where you are?" And we were like "yeah do you know what we're sharing with people? THE TRUTH." it was super awesome and we got to teach some pretty cool Africans there. 

Also Illinois taxes are awful and everybody is leaving. It's pretty funny but also not. I've never seen more U-Haul trucks in my life. Like everybody is getting out of here. We helped people move like twice this week. The first time was at president’s house because the new president is coming on the first of July, the second was a family in the ward. There were two families moving at once so the elder’s quorum helped one and we helped the other and got the whole thing finished in like 3 hours. It was crazy. But also we're not supposed to use our time moving so we woke up early to go help them and it was way exhausting but a good time! 

Also we went to a Mega church this morning because Elder Dodson has been here for 6 months and we've heard everyone talk about Calvary church but we've never actually seen it. Let's just say it is yet another testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. And the truest and fullest gospel there is and ever will be. 

Well that's about all the excitement from this week! Until next time! 

Elder Jensen

Pics:

Prepping for Mega church 

What an interesting backpack

Elder Weinmuller and I

We tricked the sisters into taking a polygamist Pic with Elder Harker haha. 

Tired while moving at presidents 

Cool, That's In the Bible

Good morning and happy Monday! I don't have a huge update this week because it was a short week from our last p-day switch, but we had a pretty fantastic few days! 

We were able to go to the temple on Wednesday and enjoy feeling the spirit of revelation pour upon our souls and you can't go wrong with that! It was interesting to see some of the changes that were made in the endowment session from when I last went 6 months ago! 

We also had the last missionary leadership conference with President Bingham before he goes home! It was absolutely amazing and there were some very insightful things we talked about that the mission needs to improve on to see some more progress! It was a super awesome experience and I'm excited to improve my missionary skills this summer!

Also this week actually right after the hype of MLC we felt like we could go and convert the world! So we went and starting knocking some townhomes in Naperville and this one dude opens the door and we introduce ourselves and he was like "one second" and Elder Dodson was like "great he's going to go and get his Bible to start a bash or something." So, anyway the dude comes out WITH A GUN!  Like for reals, this is like the Chicago suburb haha! Anyway, he's like "did you guys even see my sign!?" And it said “no soliciting” so I told him that's absolutely perfect because we're not soliciting and then we invited him to read the Book of Mormon.

He told us that we were lucky we were in Naperville or else he'd "blow us off his porch." Like what are you bro, the big bad wolf? So naturally we try to make our contacts diligent and let them at least reject our offers three times before we leave so because he literally just told us he can't shoot us, we asked him one more time if he wanted to learn more but the dude wasn't having it. Told us proudly he had read the whole New Testament by the time he was in 6th grade so there was no purpose to learn more. It was pretty funny because Elder Dodson was on the south side for 6 months and he never was threatened with a gun until he happened to be in the sweet little suburb of Naperville where people read the Bible with 6th grade educations, clearly understanding the wonderful message Jesus taught haha.

So overall a good week with a lot of finding! Since we dropped our whole teaching pool we've been trying to find the elect and bigger our teaching pool with those who are prepared to receive the gospel. It's been a work in progress and we're excited to see it continue! 

Hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Elder Jensen

The Ring Doorbell Strikes Back

So this week we have the opportunity to go to the temple and so we had a p-day switch which means we got to do some good ol Monday working! 

This last week has been pretty awesome. First off remember those ring bells that have cameras on them? So I decided to stop earth bending when people didn't answer because yeah, they definitely film you. So I took a new approach!  Now whenever people don't answer the door, I just get right in front of the camera and say something like "after centuries of being lost, original truths have been restored by a loving God through a living prophet. We have evidence of this that you can hold in your hands, read, ponder and pray about for yourself!" Then I hold the Book of Mormon and just say "comeuntochrist.org."

Well, Elder Dodson thought it was funny for the first few times but then he just thought it was pretty stupid. So I do this every time, contacting the world one doorbell at a time. Well finally Elder Dodson does it. He's seen me do it a million times and finally decides to do it himself and says, "Correct principles of salvation. Comeuntochrist.org." So we continued knocking the street until we came to the other side and this lady comes out and was like "Don't you respect NO soliciting signs?" We said, "No, we are not selling anything" and she was like "I saw you on my ring bell. What do I have to do so you don't come back?" She did not think it was very funny haha. The first response from his first doorbell contact! My boy Elder Dodson is going to be a doorbell contacting wizard! 

We also we're able to go on exchanges with the Spanish Elders which was pretty unique since I literally do not know a lick of Spanish, so my man Elder Tu'avao had to teach all the lessons mostly on his own that day. But whenever I saw a white or black person you know I was running after them. Now I know what it's like to be a language missionary I guess haha. I got to ride a bike that day that had no brakes and my comp for the day was like "Oh yeah we use our shoes as our brakes, forgot to warn you." Still alive and definitely almost got hit by cars at least three times. Thank goodness for helmets. Anyway, after the exchange was over we hit up this Mexican ice cream place which had Mexican Twinkie (called Gansito) ice cream which was legendary. Like probably just as good as Coldstone. So that day was pretty awesome. I love riding bikes! 

We also had zone conference. This was President Bingham's last one and it was absolutely phenomenal. Talked a lot about pre-earth life and what it means for our missionary purpose and also about how to stay active for the rest of our lives. Mind is always blown with that man as my teacher, he will be missed. But also we have one more MLC with him so we are extremely blessed and excited!! 

Also we were tracting this week in Naperville and we road our bikes to the area we were going. There was this group of kids outside, they kept following us around. We talked to them and asked them about summer, if they're happy school was out, what sports they like to play, etc. One girl said she liked to do gymnastics and showed us she could do the splits, so naturally I did a backflip and all the little kids started freaking out. Then after we finished knocking the neighborhood we grabbed our bikes and Elder Dodson was like "You all wanna have a bike race!?" They were all super pumped so we had a race on the little court they lived in and then they were like "When are you coming back?" Well, only one family said we could come back and their kids were outside playing and so we told all the kids we were going back to teach those kids’ family and those kids looked so smug. All the other kids were like "Why aren't you coming back to teach my family?" So I'm pretty sure like half the kids are going to try and convince their moms to let us come back and teach them haha. Jesus taught the children, so we are too haha. What a diverse place though!  There was a Russian kid, an Indian kid (there are so many Indians here if I haven't mentioned that already), two African American kids, some white kids, Lithuanian kid, etc. It was pretty awesome! We’re excited to go back and teach that family! 

That's about it for my week! I had a few thoughts from zone conference and also many of my studies. President Bingham gave us a poem he wrote called "saved by grace" which literally threw down. It was legendary. I've talked to several people who tell me they're saved by grace and my studies this week really dived deeper into that. I found myself jumping around in the scriptures. As I was reading in Mosiah 4:2 I noticed it said "apply" the atoning blood of Christ. Thought it was interesting that it said "apply" and not "accept."

I also read a bunch from 2 Nephi 2 and Moses 4. Something that really hit me hard in Moses 4 was in verse 1 when Satan says "I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost." As we all know Satan's plan required no opposition and no consequences. We would all be saved, but where would be the growth? The infinite divine potential we all have in ourselves? The power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ needs to be applied. Not just accepted. Satan's plan was to have us saved; Christ's plan was to let us choose to become something.

I'm grateful for the chance we have opposition in all things that gives us the chance to exercise our agency, the chance to "apply" the atonement of Jesus Christ, the chance to not only be saved but to become something. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we don't just stop and be happy at the fact that we're saved, but we try to show we're grateful by becoming what God would want to have us to become. The church is true. The gospel of Jesus Christ makes us, the children of God, of infinite worth with divine potential. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and the role He plays in my life! 

Well I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Love, Elder Jensen 

1. Legendary ice cream

2. My old comp at Zone Conference (Elder Jensen) and we just happened to be wearing the same ties 

3. Me and my current comp, Elder Dodson

4. Missionaries trying to teach the people of Naperville like:

5. $

6. Neighborhood squad

7. A dope bird’s nest

8. Saved by grace

Mini Missionary

So this week was the usual accept for one awesome thing we had at the end of the week! The Rockford IL stake was setting up this thing where they were sending all the youth with missionaries for a weekend and there were a lot more youth than missionaries so they went to 4 different stakes! Well we got a brother named Gavin with us for Saturday and he came back to come to church with us on Sunday. The man was like the exact same human being as my main man Austin Meyer so it was definitely a good time.

Obviously we didn't want to break Gavin and make him not want to serve a mission, so we decided to refrain from doing the usual Saturday thing and knocking doors for the whole day because it is the golden day! So we scheduled 6 lessons that day, including some at the same time. We were slammed. Well after one lesson we had all the rest of the 5 lessons cancel so our poor boy had to get a taste of the glory haha. We took him knocking doors and showed him the ways!

That day we were able to get let in twice and find two new people, and teach two restoration lessons. After one of them where the person we found literally had thoughts like "Why are there so many different churches?" "Why wouldn't call prophets today?" and after the lesson Gavin looks at us in awe and says "Did you see that?! We sniped that guy and got in his house!!! I felt the spirit SO STRONGLY MY BRO'S!!!!" now my man told us he's super excited for his mission which made both of us way happy although we didn't get the day we had originally planned for! He even got the last door contact of the day! I was so proud and grateful it was a chill dude rather than some born again who actually think we're devil worshippers.

Some other highlights of the week: although our area isn't looking exactly on top right now we were excited to see 2 other companionships in the zone have baptisms this last weekend. We set goals as a zone for each companionship to get 1 baptism in the month of June. So far we're starting off well!

I was able to go on an exchange with an Elder named Elder Holtom, so that was pretty awesome. We'll be going on several more exchanges before the end of the transfer! One of them next week I'll be in a Spanish area and everyone knows my cultural ability is all in the Indian nation so pray for me.

Also we likened the scriptures unto ourselves as Nephi advises ;) 

And I bear record that Elder Jensen and Elder Dodson did seek diligently to restore the born again Christians unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.

The church is true! The scriptures are actually pretty awesome and great power comes from them. 

Hope everyone has an amazing week! Elder Jensen

Pday adventures

Our boy Gavin 

Gavin contacting the elect 

Elder Holtom and I 

My main Colombian man Elder Vargas