Meeting Other People in Real Life! YES!

This was yet another legendary week! I mean how can it not be when you're with the legendary Elder Young?! Seriously this guy is the best, I'm pretty sure we discovered this week that we're related somehow through Polygamy somewhere down the path so that's pretty funny! No wonder he's like a brother to me! We love jamming to David Archuleta's new song "I will go and do," what a good one!! (I'm sorry though because in a few weeks it could very well turn into "I can only imagine by David Guetta") but for now this one will be the song haha 

Since we are still living the dream life as much as a missionary could in quarantine, we had our zone conference over zoom this week. It was a good time, President and Sister Shumway would probably be translated if they didn't have so many foolish missionaries constantly dragging them down haha. They taught us some valuable lessons about revelation etc. It was a good time! Then Elder Young and I got to give our training which was one of those hype up Trainings that's like "come on we got this let's have some exceedingly great faith!" Anyways we talked a lot about how we gotta do all we can in our valuable time we have as missionaries and how the Lord loves our efforts! And President liked our training so we got to give it again to the entire mission over a zoom call later in the week! It was super cool!! We used to do stuff like that when I was in the office so that was fun to do it here again in Freeport!

Also this week we got permission and were able to set up this service project for our zone at this food Bank in Rockford! So it was the first time I've actually met pretty much everyone from the zone in person haha. It was so legendary!! We had to wear masks which again I don't get what's all the hype with the masks these days but everyone is still wearing them! I've never actually seen a trend that's so intense to the point that they make you wear them just to go out in public?! They must be a pretty big deal or something! Anyways our zone is probably the coolest zone I've ever served in. I don't think I've ever had this much love for a group of missionaries in my mission. They are so faithful! Some legendary friends for sure!! 

So usually we hit up the church to do some Facebook messaging. This week we hit the grind hard and found 5 new people to teach through it. It's been pretty sick! Anyways we were there one day and a member came and was like, "Hey Elders so I went to KFC and 'accidentally' got too much so here are two full meals for you." Well, so much for 3 weeks to sexy finish strong and fit Elder Jensen super program! So in sadness and pain we began to eat this fast food when another member calls and says:

"Hello, it is my birthday and I want to celebrate it by dropping off a treat to you." Well rest in peace our fitness super program because this so called "treat" was stinking McDonald's!! So we had KFC and McDonald's and my very arteries were clogged as we went home that night to some healthy crockpot chicken we had prepared which now became left overs haha. These members are so fun lol but I think sometimes we gotta avoid them for the sake of remaining healthy. Freeport members are a whole bunch of fun though it's crazy that I'll have served in this area and probably will finish without ever officially meeting them. 

Anyways I'm going to close this one off because I'm about to get my hair cut done by the missionary who knows how to do it and got permission from Pres to be the "travel haircut guy" (because everywhere is closed) hey my people I'm going to hop off that plane with a President Nelson haircut probably so that'll be an adventure! Stay blessed this fine week!! 

Elder Jensen 

The Hood in the Middle of No Where

This week was another pretty good one!

I got my departing interview with President done which was pretty cool! It's pretty weird to be hearing President the entire mission be hyping you up to be on your mission and find the elect and work diligently and then go into this last interview and he now is hyping you up to go home and your like "no please I don't want to!" haha. It went well and it was pretty much what I had expected - are you going to keep reading your scriptures, praying, being a disciple? If I talk to you in 5 years will you still be doing it! ABSOLUTELY! that's some good stuff right there I gotta keep with me!

We continued to hit the Facebook grind and found some more new people which was sick! How cool is it that we can still teach people without never meeting them in person! "you live in Freeport, I live in Freeport, even though it might look I'm from Utah I'm not in Utah I promise."

There was one guy this week though who said he wanted a physical copy so we went and dropped on off to him. We're allowed to drop them off if they want one but just not go inside. So it was pretty cool to see a person we are teaching face to face. And even better - he lived on the east side of Freeport which we learned is the hood of Freeport! There were surprisingly a ton of abandoned houses and we were like the only white people outside! It felt like I was in Englewood again! God bless the Southside sounds like a lot of the homies left and found themselves here in the exact same situation as they were there haha.

Had some legendary lessons this week, getting some member involvement over video call and it's been awesome! I can't wait for these people to be able to meet each other in person!

Elder Young is like my favorite person on this planet I love this dude he's such a homie and we have such a good time. He's the type of homie that when we go to bed we're always just talking and laughing and telling each other stories and it's such a blast. Being in quarantine with one person creates the life long homies!

Hope everyone has an incredible week!

Elder Jensen

Member present Sunday lesson!

My boy Elder Vargas 

Inspired question - uninspired answer

Famous crockpot recipes 

Card tower 

The Elders: Inspired by the Quarantine, The Office, and Surf's Up

Click HERE to see the Elders new video: The Elders!! (https://youtu.be/lWPEo3e6Nus)

Running Out Subject Lines and Weeks

Happy blessed Monday! It's been another grand week! We have seen a ton of miracles this week and it's been probably one of the best weeks since quarantine began! Each week seems to be getting better and better and more and more possible for the Lord's work to move forward!

First off usually on Mondays we go to the other elder's place to do some laundry and in my morning run I was pondering on the thought of what we could do for a video! So we discussed it as a companionship and then with the other elders and filmed it last pday! It was pretty fun to make, never thought I'd be doing the silly little video editing I did for easy A high-school projects but here we are doing it once again to attempt to share the gospel! So it was pretty fun to make and kind of explains what missionaries do and how some of them are just a little special when they're being trained. It was a good time!

Also something they're now doing is like a page for each zone. It's something they've done for all the missions in the states so don't be surprised if you get invited to like "Church of Jesus Christ in___" basically these pages are run by the missionaries in the area and all the members are involved we try to post stuff that makes people comment and then we try to message them personally and set up a lesson. So pretty cool, what we've been doing still is just friending literally EVERYONE who has anything to do with Freeport (so if you look at my friends list these days you'll find a lot of interesting people haha) and then we message them. We got two new people this week from doing that who both live close by us!

Super cool miracle is we went to little Caesars one night (no surprises there) and this girl who was working there showed us a pass along card she kept from some past missionaries. She said she wanted to meet with us. We called her up and asked if her family was with her and now we found a whole new family to teach! And we got a member present lesson with them today with another family in the ward which is kind of how we're counting church right now! ALWAYS ask if there is anybody else in the house who want to listen haha. That's what the Nigerians taught us.

It's crazy that we're starting to find as many people in this quarantine as we were back during my days on the streets of the city! We've friended so many people that people in the grocery stores see us and say "Hey you guys friended me on Facebook! What are you doing?" Haha never thought it would be working this way but it is! Also stores are so depressing because every time we go shopping it feels like we're either in the middle of a world pandemic, or face masks are just some sort of gnarly new trend. I'm just going to pretend it's the latter.

Quarantine is interesting, but our companionship, zone, and mission have decided to show it who is boss. WE are the master of our attitudes, and so we decided we might as well have a good time! If not, then I'm afraid I haven't learned a thing on my mission. But I want to become a disciple, and these wonderful people around me are helping me do that. I am grateful for them!

Hope everyone has a blessed week and not a stressed week!

Elder Jensen 

Our ghetto balcony 

Little sneak peak of our video 

Morning miracle 

Pizza 

Legendary sunset 

Day 10283829 inside

God bless this week we had in quarantine! It was another legendary time with my boy Elder Young!

We have been doing what missionaries do in quarantine, calling a lot of members and doing a lot of video member lessons, calling a lot of people were teaching and doing people were teaching lessons over video, and of course friending every single person on FB who has anything to do with Freeport Illinois and messaging them!

One person named Albert on FB agreed to listen to what we taught and became a new person, and he also referred us to his niece who has a family so now we found a new family! The network still works even in quarantine! Gotta love it!

It snowed one morning so Elder Young and I after our morning run built a snowman which was pretty sick and then it broke and now it's already melted. The weather here never ceases to amaze me!

Sadly quarantine is pretty much the same thing every day so I don't have much more to add, but I'm happy, Elder Young is happy, and we're busy! I do hope this ends before I go home though so I can actually go to one church service in the Freeport ward 

Everyone have a great week!

Snow 

The emptiness of this place 

Comp unity 

Me trying to be like the wii fitness trainer 

FREEPORT

This place is sick. Even though I've been inside the whole time I love it here! Imagine the boonies of Indiana mixed with people of the Southside who got kicked out and sent here and that pretty much describes it. So it's pretty legendary! I'm excited for when we're able to actually go out and I have to say there is no place I'd rather finish my mission!

My new companion Elder Young is the man! He's a ton of fun! There is nobody I'd rather be in quarantine with. We have such a good time and are doing literally everything we can to make this area pop in the quarantine! We've been calling all the members and have been hitting the Facebook find grind like crazy. 

We've actually been able to get pretty busy and are now teaching about 6 lessons a day so that's been fun! Lots of member lessons but it's been good! The video call lessons are probably the best way to do member work. It's exactly what we're looking for in this mission, no fat dinner appointments with the members that are a waste, but fitting like 4 member lessons in the time we used to do just one.

Elder Young and I just laugh all day every day. Until 10:30 pm we're just dying haha. It's been a blast with him.

Our zone is super awesome! It's been awesome to be a zone leader here in the Rockford zone! We've been putting some heavy focus on accountability and staying structured during the quarantine, we've already seen a super good increase in our numbers here! Missionaries are starting to figure out how to rock this quarantine life and it is getting gnarly!

Hope everyone has an incredible week!

Elder Jensen 

Corona Conference

Well this has been an exciting transfer here in West Chicago YSA! Sadly since I'm dying sooner than expected this next transfer will be my last so I'm going to no longer be serving here in the office with Elder Anderson because he's dying too so it only makes sense to have one of us leave!

I'm getting transferred to the Rockford zone in an area called Freeport for my last transfer as a zone leader! I'm going to be companions with a younger missionary named Elder Young who was actually in this zone and is an ultra homie. We're going to be zone leaders together which I'm pumped for!! It's going to be a good time in the hood boonies! This area is as far west as the mission goes so it's literally like a 3 hour drive from the city and I'm going to feel like I've been banished haha! It's ok I've been in the outskirts of Indiana before and I loved it haha!

This last week was a really good one. It's crazy to see the impact the corona virus has on the world and on the mission. We were at a Walmart the other day and it actually felt like an apocalypse movie. Everyone wearing their masks, staying 6 feet apart from each other, and people freak out if you get too close! And... I'm a missionary during the "apocalypse" haha. It's super funny. I've always imagined myself during these movies and what I would do, and I would've never imagined I'd be preaching the nourishing good word of God! And yet this is a great time to be doing it because the people are starting to have these questions of the soul that only Hinduism, or the gospel of Jesus Christ can answer! (and let's just say I 100% would rather have them turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ)

This week we had to continue transfer plans, and transfer travel plans. It's been a lot of long meetings with President and the few senior missionaries at the office who were allowed to stay trying to get these plans figured out when missionaries are going home left and right and causing areas to close and human beings aren't to meet in places with too many people and especially not the church. So planning transfers has been a headache, but the deed is done and hopefully it'll go smoothly on Tuesday!

This week we also did our MLC over zoom which actually worked surprisingly well. We tried to figure out a bunch of new features one of the best being the ability to break out into groups for smaller councils between zones. It worked really well and we were able to set a baptismal goal for April even though we're not totally sure if we'll be able to have a baptismal service in April due to the virus. If not then may is going go be HUGE for this mission!

We also had a mission devotional over FB live and Elder Anderson and I got to give a training, which it does feel awfully weird to give a training to a camera rather than a group of missionaries, but we felt it went pretty well! I miss being able to give trainings in front of people though haha

Other than that we've just been living the life of the quarantine! Rocking the video calls and the attempts to find people on Facebook! One recent convert from the Southside found our phone number and called me and gave us a Nigerian referral who lives here in the west suburbs so we taught her over video which was fun haha. We've also been messaging some mutual friends of members on FB and we found a dude and taught him the restoration! Problem is he lives in Africa haha. So the work continues! And Africa is probably going to get a lot of media referrals!

Well that's about it for my week,the quarantine life is about to get a lot slower without the assistant stuff to do so that'll be an adjustment, but I'm excited to see where it goes! Have an awesome week!

Elder Jensen

Elder Draper - legend who helps with transfer

EXPOSED TO THE STASH 

Tennis on Pday -- courts are closed now :(

At the church for online Training