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

Short Week

This was a short week because last P-day was on Wednesday, but it was a really great one!

We had exchanges with the AP's which was awesome; my boy Elder Van Tassell came here with me to the Northside. We've gone on like 6 exchanges with each other now and were also companions at one point, which means he's on the level of ultra homie. It was a great day of finding the elect on the cold streets of Chicago!

Other than that almost everything was the same old stuff, finding new people, teaching them, and trying to get them to church. This week we had an almost "south side" moment because we committed like 10 people to come to church and made plans to get them there and then 1 showed up. On the south side our ratios were usually worse, making plans for 25 people and getting one haha. But hey if we get 100 people committed then we just might get a lot of people at Church! There's the goal for this week!

We found an active Nigerian member who said he's down to come out with us to teach this awesome new family we found, so we're really looking forward to that this weekend and hope their schedules will align. Getting member present lessons are extremely hard in the city. We've been trying really hard to get some here and it looks like we're going to be getting some this week which we are pumped about!

We biked to the temple last week which was awesome but my tire was bulging the next morning and now I might be rocking a bike with the wrong size of tire for a little while haha should be interesting. 

Missionary work is the best; life in Chicago is awesome although I'm so excited for winter to be over so it can be hot outside like Southern Utah. Hope everyone has an amazing week!

Elder Jensen

Long Legendary Week

This week was awesome! A little longer than usual because we switched our P-day on the holiday, but it was super legendary and now we're going to bike to the temple today anyways which will be LEGENDARY!

For those of you who may know, there is one rough thing that comes with opening an area. It's not the lack of people in your teaching pool because we have a lot of fun finding those! Or the lack of knowledge in the area, but the lack of food in the apartment because you're the first missionaries there! So basically we live "paycheck to paycheck,” on our missionary funds and only eat eggs haha.

But this week was crazy because we found two African families, and they keep giving us tons of food! We found one family from Benin. The mom's name is Yvette and every time we go over she says she has to make us dinner. So we've had tons of fufu, Jolloff rice, and white rice and spicy stew. We're super grateful! It's cool to get fed by people were teaching haha. But the problem is every time we go over there wanting to teach she's like: "I must make you dinner!" and then starts to cook. I don't get it! Honestly, I can imagine her telling her friends, "yeah we have these 2 white boys every Tuesday and Friday night so we can give them a bunch of our food." She speaks better French than English, so we got her a Book of Mormon in French and she's been reading it. She has 2 kids above the age of 8 and this family would be so solid except they work on Sunday and with a slight language barrier it's been a little difficult to help her understand priesthood authority and why we need to be baptized by proper authority. They're so awesome though so keep them in your prayers to get those Sundays off!

Another family we've been teaching is this single mom named Jennipher (I know it's spelled weird) and her daughter Precious. Cool story about Jennipher, my trainer and I actually found her up here on the Northside a year ago! We taught her a few times when I was a brand new missionary but then I got transferred. But when I came back we picked them back up and started teaching them! They also feel the need to give us African food every single time. It's pretty awesome! We're really pushing go get both these families to church but it's going to take some patience and persistence and prayers.

This week we were able to finally get some people at church which we were pumped about! 2 older African American men named Slade and Eric both came. Slade told us he's not a joiner and doesn't need to be baptized, but in the last hymn of sacrament meeting I saw him tearing up a bit. This man CAUGHT THE HOLY GHOST! So I think he's softened up a bit. Super cool.

We had 2 exchanges this week with both of our DL's this week. The first one I went with a missionary named Elder Pingel which was legend! We got fed Jolloff rice three times on that exchange which was hilarious; my man was sweating up a storm! It was a super good time! 

2nd exchange was with my good man Elder Howe who I was with in the MTC. It was a blast to finally have an exchange together and hit the streets of this awesome city! We found a new person and had some awesome lessons and finding! 

This week last of all we also had this awesome leadership meeting where they had all the district leaders and zone leaders and sister training leaders meet up at Naperville and we had this cool special guest named brother Littlefield who was a mission president in California. The dude is a beast and unfolded PMG before our eyes! Can't wait to apply some of the stuff he taught us! The more fun part though would have to be the party van of 8 elders all the way to Naperville!! 

Hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Elder Jensen 

The Network

This week has been super fun again! We've been able to do a lot more finding and even a lot more teaching now that we're starting to get a teaching pool more set up!

On Wednesday we had our zone conference which was super good! We learned a lot about the worth of souls and it made us all want to go and work super hard! I got to go on an exchange with the other zone leader Elder Safley the night before so we could plan our training and it was super awesome! It went well!

We have one Nigerian woman named Ayo who we are teaching pretty consistently, but we're struggling to get her to church. We're pretty sure she's going to make it next week and are really excited for her. She's been really good at giving us referrals. Her building is a gold mine. She gave us some Nigerian spaghetti this week and Elder Christensen was dying haha. I pretend like I'm fine but I guess it's hard to pretend when your face is red and you're sweating haha.

The coolest thing though is after our lesson with her we asked if she had anybody we could go and teach and she told us to follow her. She went to her neighbor’s door and started slapping it with her hand, kicking it and yelling in Yoruba haha! Her friend opened the door and they were jabbering off in Yoruba and then Ayo says in English, "These are my friends! They preach to me the word of God! I would love for them to come and preach to you as well." So her friend gave us her phone number and said we could come by next week! The Nigerian network continues! We saw stuff like this all the time in Englewood, and we're trying to get it rolling here!

That's about all for this week! Most of the rest was just finding on the street and loving life! Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Jensen 

Cars = The Worst in the North Side

This week was another super awesome one! We've been continuing to hit the streets again every day to find the elect. My only problem is just calling all the numbers during daily planning that we worked so hard to get the day before. Only like 1/8 pans out and it drives me nuts!!! So in order to find as many people as we can, we just have to talk to even more! Then we'll find more! This week we found 7 more people to add to our teaching pool which was awesome. Some of the ones from last week have already dipped out which is kinda sad, but that's just how opening an area goes!

This week we had MLC. It's so weird to be a zone leader for any zone other than the South side zone, I had been the ZL there for so long that MLC was different for some reason haha. It was so good though! I got to go on a double exchange with my boy in the YSA Elder Safley, and he doesn't have a car either. So we needed to grab the car from another companionship, and got to his apt by 9:00, and then realized they didn't have a parking space.... So we drove around for LITERALLY 2 HOURS trying to find a place to park! There are times I just want to curse this wicked city. Thank goodness I'm on a bike. So we didn't get in until 11:30 that night. We tried. But MLC was straight fire, and then in our zone meeting the next day we gave an awesome training about exceedingly great faith and it was LEGENDARY! It was so awesome!!

We were able to get in with this Nigerian couple as well that we street contacted into last week, and they made us some spicy Jolloff rice and Moi Moi (the fish loaf stuff) and it was Elder Christensen's first time having Nigerian food and he was suffering! It was so funny. But it felt good to be teaching Nigerians again! We've already found quite a few up here and there are several buildings just like the Lowe building! They just have better security so it's harder to get in.

Also, for some reason this week as we've been out and about we've found ourselves in several nursing homes; one visiting a recent convert, and two others for people we had contacted. But all the workers there are Nigerian! And it's crazy because some of those Nigerian workers are now in our teaching pool and have led us to some more buildings filled with Africans! That's been the funnest part about opening this area, just having a day with nothing scheduled, and then seeing where the Lord takes you throughout the day.

On one of these days, Elder Christensen wanted to wear a trench coat, so he looked like a Jehovah’s witness. So of course we had to take some JW model pics. (And that day a lot of people just happened to ask if we were JW, probably because of Elder Christensen's trench coat. He decided he never wants to wear it again.)

I think the coolest thing that happened this week was when we were far north in our area, I saw GABRIEL! One of our recent converts from the South side! He was running and jumping towards me yelling "ALAGBA JENSEN!!" (Means pastor Jensen) Haha it was so awesome!

This week was awesome and I'm pumped for another! Stay blessed!

Elder Jensen

JW 

Comp unity 

How to sew a button 

Gabriel