A Slight Chill

Hello everybody! Fall is here! Well like 50% of the time. Sometimes it gets pretty cold! But sometimes it's not. When it feels cold it's like what winter feels like in st George. And fall is just beginning. So when winter comes... Well let's just say I'm scared for that time. Everybody is warning me about the dreadful chill that is soon going to be here. So I'm preparing for that I hope!

So let's see. This week a ton happened, but also it's kinda repetitive. Let's just start off by saying I love studying! We get an hour each day and I'm always sad when it's over. The Book of Mormon is awesome! We really focused a lot on the Book of Mormon when teaching and contacting and studying this week! The Book of Mormon is definitely one of the things that makes this church different, and I know that it's a powerful and important tool for growing closer to our savior and learning what we can do to become better people. 

We had two lessons where we read the Book of Mormon with some of the people were teaching and we just went over it slowly. Also we referred them to President Nelson's talk in the last conference called "the Book of Mormon, what would your life be like without it?"  Literally just the title of that talk left me pondering! At the end he has a list all about what the Book of Mormon does for us, it's super awesome and everybody should read it. We invited those were teaching to read it every day and pray every day, because with the Book of Mormon we have the evidence we need to know if the church is true, it's just up to us to find that out.

Two of our people came to church! I'm super happy for them they both enjoyed it a lot.

Oh yeah also this week we had new missionary training! It was the highlight of my week. Super fun, and I got to see my old MTC buddies and my main bros Elder Bell and Elder Howe. Love those guys they are the best ones in the corn and one is in the scary Southside while I'm in the city so wish us all luck. It was cool to learn about all of their areas! Every area is so different and while I love mine I'm excited to experience the other ones as well. It's cool because I really know as missionaries were in the place we're supposed to be at the time we're supposed to be there. It's super cool.

President and sister Bingham spoke there too. First of all, President Bingham could be best friends with my dear old dad. They are both like seminary teachers, and both have had seven kids in their life! It's crazy every time he teaches and whips out all that awesome scriptural doctrine it reminds me of my dad. He's a great teacher though and I think he could definitely be a general authority one day haha. 

Elder Bolton and I were talking about how we want to try using more scripture in our teaching because its powerful to include what's written in the scriptures. Even while we're contacting we're going to start trying to come up with more creative ways to share scriptures with others so they know that in this church we are focused on our savior and the Book of Mormon testifies of him. I'll let yall know if one of these creative ideas ever works out cause right now we're still brainstorming.

Do spiders die in the winter? I hope so because I'm still paranoid every time I come back to the apartment. So wish me luck still. 

Super pumped for General Conference! We're hearing rumors about more changes in the church but I'm not gonna believe them until I hear it from the prophet himself. I love reading the previous talks in gospel library. They have a lot of great insights and go hand in hand with a lot of the scriptures we read. Those talks are also powerful tools in teaching and studying.

The members here are awesome. I love eating dinner with them and getting to know them. Because it's a YSA and it's not in Utah mostly everybody helps the best they can with member missionary work in super simple ways! A lot of them bring nonmember friends to church and activities throughout the week. It's awesome and not even that hard so I want to challenge all you Utah YSAs to give it a try. It helps the work move along and helps the missionaries a lot!

It's definitely made me look back and regret not ever inviting nonmember friends to simple fun activities. What are they gonna do say no? Now that I look back it doesn't even seem that hard. Also another great tool to help members be a part of the work is the new saints book. I've been reading it and it's awesome! It's a simple tool that anyone can use to learn about the history of the church! It's honestly not a bad read either, I mean I don't know if it's Harry Potter material, but it's up there!

Well I think that's about it! Keep being awesome everyone!

Elder Jensen 

Pictures 

First three pictures are just that dad bod material food 

The Bestest was given to us and I ate it in honor of my brother Jase. 

Last pic is just my MTC homies 

Spider Videos

Parking and Spiders and Spiritual Weed

Wow. One more week down and it was pretty fantastic. I got one of my first funny mission stories so I'm going to tell it. 

We were teaching this guy, let's call him J. So we were teaching J and his friend, and it was going really well. They were both really interested in what we had to say and the spirit was really strong. His friend was Christian but told us he liked hearing our lessons because the brought the holy spirit. Anyways we were probably about halfway through the lesson when somebody came and started knocking on the window. J went to the window and told them we were currently having bible study. They asked if they could join so J said it was all good, and two more people came inside the room, and guy and a girl probably in their late 20s. They were brother and sister. The girl was like "you are Mormons! I know all about them, and Jehovahs witnesses!" 

So then she started to try and teach us about the religion that were apart of, and so that was exciting. We told her that we were trying to give a lesson that focused on Jesus and how he is the center of the religion. Then her brother asked us if we would tell him the bad stuff WE'VE done, and the bad stuff Joseph Smith had done, and about the Book of mormon. We told him none of us are perfect. And then him and his sister started bashing with us and the spirit left instantly. I was like what happened.

J was defending us though by telling them he knew that "John Smith translated the gold book" i was trying soooo hard not to laugh because John Smith is the dude in Pocahontas if I remember correctly. But ya know at least he was defending his beliefs. Then the brother literally started rolling a blunt during the lesson! This boy was about to smoke weed during the lesson! Elder Bolton was like "Can you please smoke that outside? It hurts my lungs." His sister got mad because it was J's house and "weed is from the earth, so naturally it's of god." So anyways they left and we told the original people about how the spirit left because of contention, and kinda made a lesson out of it haha. So yeah that was one of the more exciting things that happened. 

So the reason for my subject. The spiders here.... Oh my goodness. Many of you probably know how much I hate spiders. And there are so Many! Right outside our apartment there's like this massive web with like 20 huge spiders. For this reason Illinois would not be my choice of living, but a great place still. I cannot leave my window open very well at night. It stresses me out 

Also, the parking here. Words cannot describe. Let's just say it took us 30 min to park last night. It was a disaster  sometimes I don't know why we have a car, but then I remember cause our area is huge like I swear it might be like a 4th of the mission. So we need it it's just parking is an adventure. Also parallel parking is our new life. I wish I had paid more attention when Bundy made me practice at the temple. It's crazy stuff 

We met a couple of new people this week, and even had an opportunity to teach this guy a restoration lesson on the UIC campus! So that was really cool 

We've been eating dinner with members of the YSA or S.A. pretty much every night. I Love eating dinner with the members cause we get to know them all and they're all really awesome people! The only thing I don't totally like is that they take us out like half the time, and it makes my fear of the dad bod seem closer and closer every day. We have a treadmill on the first floor of our apartment so I run two miles every day so I try to stay in shape but these members are showing no mercy haha. So far I haven't gained any weight so still hanging in there but I fear the day is coming. But I love eating with the members they're super fun and awesome. 

Contacting is still not my favorite, but I'm getting a little better I think. Our method is to ask people to take pictures of us together and then we talk to them right after, so I'll probably have a ton of random pictures but it does the trick. 

This morning we went to the beach of lake Michigan and I went running two miles and then I played ultimate frisbee with my district and it was really fun. Sand ultimate frisbee is harder but still way fun. 

We went to a dinner with a member named andrew and got some Chicago deep dish. It's pretty good but I'm sorry people I still don't think it's on that Dominos level! I just don't get it! The pretty just make it upside down like the crust, the pepperoni then cheese then sauce. Like why?! Still though it's pretty good I just don't understand the hype it's like star wars  

I feel like that's most of the cool stuff that happened this week! Chicago is awesome and I'm still alive so I reckon I might live a little longer. love all of ya! 

Sunrise at lake Michigan 

Lunch with the elders 

Member drew this of us

Attempt to talk to someone by having them take a picture of us 

Last Week of the MTC and Beginning of Chicago!

Ok so the last week in the MTC was literally insane. And when I say that I don't mean that it was filled with the spirit. It was literally crazy. Like one of our sisters in our district barely was able to come on a mission because she had health problems, and then then doctors here said that it wasn't possible for her to actually serve and they had to send her home. It was really hard for her and really sad for us because she didn't want to go, but her health problems wouldn't allow it. She was going to serve in Chicago. 

Then we went to bed that night and one of the elders in our zone (also chicago missionary) told us his chest was burning but he would probably be fine. We woke up that morning hearing that him and his companion was currently in the emergency room and the hospital and that he was having problems with his pancreas. Pancreatis or something like that. He'll still be able to serve but he'll be coming out a little later. So that threw a loop for everyone because he's still a missionary and has to have a companion with him at the hospital at all times except night, so the companionships have been way different.

Just when I thought everything couldn't get anymore chaotic, an ambulance pulled up to one of the buildings that we had class in. The medics got out and came back with a girl in a stretcher. we got a closer look and it was yet another chicago missionary from our zone. she had a seizure or something. So three chicago missionaries this week down for a little while, but two will for sure still be able to serve. It was so crazy. 

So our original Chicago party of 11 ended up as 5. However some of those missionaries will be here next week or they might be arriving now. So wild stuff.

But now we entered the crazy city of chicago!! I walked outside and the humidity hit me and it was horrifying  but now i think I have gotten used to it. On the first day here the mission president and his wife met us at the airport and gave us some lunch, and then they instantly gave us some books of mormon and on THE FIRST DAY they had us ride the train around the city and try to give these things away. It was hilarious because I was actually way more afraid to talk to people than I thought, but I met many cool people and gave away a couple books. Then we had dinner (authentic deep dish) which I actually still love dominoes more sorry Chicago, and then went to bed in the mission home. 

The next day they introduced us to our new companions/trainers, and the areas wed be serving in. My trainers name is elder Bolton, and he's like the coolest person ever. I'm learning tons from him every day. He's like a champion teacher and so I feel like I don't really have a lot to contribute in the lessons but I try to add stuff when I can. He's been here for 20 months and is actually the same age as Jase, so he's return missionary material. I hope I can be as great as he is in the future. He's from Sandy Utah and is just the coolest. I'll probably be his companion until he goes home in December.

So the area..... I was completely ready to be serving in the suburbs, or areas with lots of corn like my dear sister Janikas mission. I learned that the city is actually not a huge part of the mission. Like several areas of the mission touch it but none of the missionaries really get to go in the city a whole lot, except our district gets to whenever they go to church. So I was like cool I don't mind that. And now my companion and I are literally over the whole city, we've been called to serve in the young single adults ward and the single adults branch. So we try to hit up all these colleges which means we get a car because our area is so big! Yay! 

The traffic here is wild though. Sometimes it takes like 45 min to drive like a normal 15 min drive. Also if you thought Utah drivers were bad?? Hehehe you don't even know. People here drive crazy like I don't fear that I'll die being shot, but most definitely fear the road will be the end of me. There are people EVERYWHERE. On bikes, just walking around. It looks like a giant constant parade. So yeah that's horrifying. Also you can't exactly drive dangerous like Vin diesel because theres a big bully named Tiwi in the car that tells on you when you're a naughty driver. Curse thy soul tiwi. But yeah it's pretty wild. 

When the members feed us here they usually take us out, so I'm afraid the dadbod is coming quicker than I thought, also I was sick this whole last week! So I wasn't able to go running. 

The weather here is interesting. The first day it was soooooo hot. And so it was the second day. The third day I was wearing a sweater. I don't own one yet so I had to borrow one of my companions, so it looks like this first pday I'm already going to start shopping for the good cold weather stuff. A couple nights ago it was sooooo windy. Like I was gonna be swept off the sidewalk. That was pretty fun though. 

There are lot of neat buildings here and neat people who some are weird and some are off their rockers. (That means crazy in Ron weasly language) I love it though  like some people on the street ask us for money, and we never have any cash and so then they ask us to say a prayer with us "good Christian men" I love it. There are so many different cultures here! It really is a melting pot! It's really cool. 

The elders here before us were doing a lot of good work so were trying to pick up where they left off. Elder Bolton has only been in this area a week longer than me so were both trying to get to know the members a lot so we can get their help with missionary work. They've already played a huge role in missionary work and the ward mission leader in the YSA is unreal. He invites nonmember friends to like every activity. So thanks to him we've already met a lot of people to teach at the church activities. 

The Church here is awesome. It's definitely an adjustment from your average Utah church because it's 6 stories tall, has an elevator, a parking garage with a security code, and a security guard at the very front. Apparently it's one of the few churches in world with a security guard. Just another cool thing that brings me peace during church, is that we have God on our side, and our own personal Dwayne the rock Johnson protecting the church. It is indeed quite comforting. 

Yesterday we went to 6 hours of church because we have the two wards, and I really enjoyed all of it! Just an awesome reminder that this is a worldwide church, and everywhere you go you can feel at home in the church. It makes me excited to go to the temple too. I definitely miss working in the temple. 

Oh so we had a baptism! My first one! His name is Frank and he did pretty much everything with the elders before us, but we got to have the last lesson with him before he got baptized and now we get to do the new member lessons with him. He's awesome and a really funny dude. 

So yeah I think that is pretty much it for this last two weeks, till next time 

 Speaking Chinese with the tourists! 

Welcome to the "Windy City!" 

The Bean

 Frank's Baptism

Lake Shore, Chicago

Elder Jensen with President and Sister Bingham (Mom Post)

(E-mail from Sister Bingham)

It was a beautiful day yesterday in Chicago and Elder Jensen got on his way with his trainer, Elder Bolton. He will be a wonderful trainer for Elder Jensen.  They will be serving in the Lake Shore YSA area. We love the spirit he brings to this mission. Thanks for sharing him with us.

Love, 

Sister Bingham

Welcome to Chicago!! (Mom Post)

This morning we got to speak with Elder Jensen for a few minutes on the phone while he was at the airport getting ready to fly out to Chicago!! A few hours later we received the following letter from President and Sister Bingham:

This email is to let you know that your missionary arrived in the Illinois Chicago Mission. He will be a blessing to this mission.  We are so excited to get to know them.

When the missionaries arrive, their luggage is transported to the Mission Home, and the missionaries are taken to the train to travel to and from downtown Chicago.  They are given the opportunity to contact people and place a Book of Mormon in this process. It is an exciting introduction to missionary work and to the city of Chicago. They will also get a chance to see "The Bean” and some other Chicago sights.

When the missionaries arrive back at the mission home, there is a dinner of Chicago Pizza for them.  After dinner they have some training and an interview with President. The new missionaries will sleep at the mission home tonight.

On Tuesday morning, the new missionaries all travel to the nearby church where more training and transfers take place.  

After this, the missionaries travel to their area of service and your missionary will begin actual missionary service.

The new missionaries are always excited and full of energy, and bring a wonderful spirit with them to the mission. We all love their enthusiasm. Our missionaries lovingly call it "greenie fire."

We already love our new missionaries, 

President and Sister Bingham

Later we received the following short e-mail from Elder Jensen:

I made it in Chicago and they already started us handing out Books of Mormon on trains. I only got one but that was alright. Other than that I got wrecked and some people stared at my name tag with hatred, so that was pretty funny. Also it's so dang humid here, right when I walked outside I was like, oh no I'm not in Kansas anymore, it was Wild. I don't know if I'll be able to send a big email until next week but pday is Monday now. Don't have a trainer yet, I think we're staying at the mission home tonight.

MTC Week Three

Pictures from this week...

Tie Exchange 

 Our District

 Elder Moosman 

                                    Elder Josh Wilde, Elder Jared Jensen, Elder Brevin Kunde 

 Elder Zach Ferguson, Elder Brevin Wilde, Elder Jared Jensen

 Elder Jensen and Elder Jensen