Subzero Baby

Good morning everyone and happy Monday! This week was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. To start let's just say I learned some valuable lessons this week. #1. It gets cold in some parts of the world, really cold. #2. Some people believe that the Sabbath is on Saturday. #3. All work usually stops when it gets super super cold -- except missionary work! This week it got to the negatives, but not too low, just like - 6 but this next week on Wednesday its going to be insane like the high is - 20!! #wishusluck

So this week on Tuesday we were going tracting and it was raining, yeah that's no biggie right, sometimes it rains! In fact I was super happy that it just wasn't snow! But guess what, apparently when it's only 7 degrees outside the rain freezes as soon as it touches the ground! Next thing I know it the whole neighborhood we're in is like some giant ice skating rink! So I was walking like normal and then a;lsidjfpoiaejfoipqjwe there I go I'm on the ground. Elder Jensen is laughing because I biffed it, I'm laughing because I biffed it, and it didn't hurt because I had so many layers on that it just felt like I fell on a pillow or something!

Anyway, it was all fun and games until I was walking, slipped, biffed it, and naturally my foot swings up and nails elder Jensen's leg, trips him too, he biffs it. So we're both on the ground like "what just happened, hopefully nobody saw us except I kinda wish somebody was filming us because that would make a funny fail video" so we walk up to the next house and instead of the house we knocked on their neighbor opened the door. "Are you OK?!"...... Great.... Someone did see us! So we offered them what we offered everybody. She just told us we're nuts and that we're probably going to get hurt. So after that we walked much cautiously although I'm very sure that ice skates would've been a great option for that day. 

With this cold weather we were in a place called Cedar Lake where they have a big lake called Cedar Lake. The lake was completely frozen over. Like 4 inches thick ice too. So when Elder Jensen and I were walking past it we had to go get on the lake and take a picture because how cool is this super frozen lake! So we did just that and it was super gnarly. Apparently once the ice gets 7 inches thick on the lake they do ice races where they have motorcycles and trucks out on the lake which is super crazy that the frozen lake can hold that much weight. 

So Indiana is the winter wonderland again, but also it's so cold that instead of "walking in a winter wonderland" it's like "walking in a polar vortex of death." But there is lots of snow and ice again and it kinda looks like inside of a snow globe again! Something we've been doing with the cold is knocking with a golf ball instead of with our knuckles because when you have fat gloves on knocking on the door sounds like you’re throwing a pillow at the door. So we are adapting to the cold. 

So since I get to teach district council now, I make the whole district role play on my boy Austin whose face is on my water bottle. Elder Condie shout out to you for being so willing to let these Indiana missionaries practice teaching to your face. But it's really fun and I've enjoyed it a lot. It's definitely way cooler than district leader in the MTC because all you did there was get mail and I don't even know how to get the mail anyways! 

So last of all, one of the people we're teaching is a 7th day Adventist. He invited us to his church, so why not!? We went with him and it's on a Saturday because they believe the Sabbath is on the Saturday. It was so classic like your average Christian church except like the only difference is it's on Saturday. The people there though are all super nice and really open-minded actually so we probably got some new teaching opportunities from this haha. However one really old lady was trying to convert me and gave me a book about "why Sabbath is on Saturday". Honestly that's like all they have to offer! Like who cares what day it's on as long as you dedicate a day to the lord! We don't know if it was even Sunday when Jesus gave the sacrament to the people so haha I don't really know why it's so important but she gave me the book and I gave her a book of Mormon so this should be interesting. They were great people. 

Seeing other churches has been really eye opening and being in this area has strengthened my testimony quite a bit. Most people in this area are content with the way they live, they don't want change. But also they don't really even see what their church has to offer them. All these churches out there, how do we know which ones true? Most people just stick to the one they're raised in. But every once in a while you'll find those people out there who are seeking for the church that it speaks of in the Bible. Because the Bible says that there's just one. And when we follow the example of the prophet Joseph and ask God, we will find his church. I'm grateful to be a part of it. I'm grateful for all it has to offer me in my life and for others, because it has the priesthood authority and even a way we can know, the Book of Mormon! There is no other church out there that has as much to offer as this one. I'm grateful for the opportunity we each have to all have our own conversion story, and to all find out for ourselves, because that's how God is. If he's like a heavenly father than he'd want you to learn for yourself like a regular parent would. 

This church is true! I love Indiana! I hope everyone has a great week and stay warm! (Except for you St. George people you don't even know haha) 

-Elder Jared D. Jensen

Pics

1. In memory of Tanner, Trevor and Tracen. 

2. Hebron the promised land

3. Austin peeking out on the snowy road

4. I'm Jack Frost

5. The frozen lake

6. Elder JensenX2

7. My new life

 

Yes, I Know What Snow Is

There is so much snow this week. But I'm still grateful because it could be colder. Right now it's currently 4 degrees outside but it's going to get up to like 20 this week again so there is a chance of survival, don't worry! 

This was a great week! We had more lessons than Hebron has ever had in a really long time! It was super awesome and it's going to start getting busy! This week we had zone conference on Tuesday and it was really great and I learned a ton and it forever changed my life and it was legendary and awesome and amazing. 

My companion Elder Jensen is the man! We have had some good times together so far! I made him try some Cold Stone because he had never had it before and so I like to think that I forever changed his life because that's the best ice cream ever. 

We have limited miles that we are supposed to stay under with the mission cars, so Elder Jensen and I both have bikes and helmets that we were going to start using so that we could save a little bit on miles but then it started pouring snow again this weekend. It's super intense when you're driving in it but we've decided to hold back on the bikes for now, because it's like super crazy.

The snow is actually the worst. Like I don't want to sound negative or anything but I'm starting to hear excuses like, "I can't come to church because the snow on the roads is too dangerous." We drove to the church just fine! Snow is no good. Also another bad thing about it, it completely changes how everything looks completely! We went tracting on this one street and after finishing the whole street I realized that I had tracted it like 3 weeks ago with Elder Buckway, but I couldn't remember because of the snow making it look completely different!

It was actually really funny, we tracted into this really old lady who told us she was 95 years old! And last time we said, “Hey if you ever need someone to help shovel your driveway or something or you would like to learn more, here is our card!” We knocked into her again and she said, "Weren’t you here like 3 weeks ago?" In my head I was like "oh no we were here three weeks ago..." so I instantly said "yeah but you never called us to shovel your driveway! Can we do that?" She said, "well I wouldn't mind that, but you really don't need to." Then we did it and she was watching from the window with a huge smile on her face and tried to give us money, but actually accepted when we said no haha. So it was a good time and then nobody was answering their doors because it was cold out so we just started driving around and whenever we would see someone outside shoveling we'd just hop out and start helping them and talk to them. It was pretty cool. So we are still trying to learn how to use the snow to our advantage!  

So I created a lesson where I juggle and Elder Jensen and I have been using it for a lot of the family lessons and dinner lessons in the ward and it's so fun! It’s actually really funny. I love not being in a YSA ward and having kids in the ward now! So sometimes during dinner I'll just go into the other room and Elder Jensen is just talking to the adults and then they all come in the other room and I'm performing a juggling act for all the kids haha it's such a good time! There are so many awesome kids in this ward that remind me of my buddies from summer time (shout out to my boys Tanner, Trevor and Tracen) 

Also this week since Elder Jensen and I are still forced to be the ward choir, and won the "best singing face award." Take that Hebron ward. Choir is actually pretty fun; like I definitely still wouldn't do it in my home ward, but hey if they make you do it then it can still be fun. 

Other than all that not much is new, my companion is still named Elder Jared Jensen, it's still the coolest thing that has happened here since 2009. We have like 4 solid people we are teaching regularly and I'm excited to see them all move forward. It's super exciting stuff! It is a little hard to find new people but it's all a work in progress. 

Well that's where I'll close for now! Hebron is the Promised Land! I love this place and the people here so much! 

Also the church is true just so you all know; I have discovered this for myself. And if you haven't, I recommend that you do so. Talk to you next week! 

Elder Jensen (Jared D.) 

Pics

1. Zone conference

2. The fuzzy hats that look odd (but are so stinkin warm) 

3. Quality

4. Child took my phone

5 and 6. Pics that I just got from my last exchange with my boy Elder Thompson

7. "The most wonderful time of the year?" 

JAREDJENSENX2: THE BEST THING HEBRON HAS SEEN SINCE 2009

Happy Monday my friends! Of course I'm sure for all of you it's not a happy Monday because everybody hates Mondays usually! It’s right after the weekend! Well, missionaries version of Mondays are Tuesdays, because you have Saturdays which are always great and busy, Sundays which are the greatest days ever, and Mondays where you can ball. So Tuesdays are missionary’s version of Mondays where it's like a warm up day for the week! 

Well this week was absolutely fantastic! A little busier than usual. My new companion, Elder Jared B. Jensen, is new to the area so I've been kinda leading the way the whole week cause I know what's going on around here right now. Also I taught my first district council! That was cool! Hopefully everyone didn't leave losing 50% of their brain cells. But being a district leader is pretty rad, definitely way cooler than it was in the MTC where I just got mail (which I didn't even know how to open the mailbox I gotta thank Elder Moosman for that one) but its good times. 

So my new companion Elder Jensen. He is MY GUY!  He is so humble, so awesome, so quiet and actually like the opposite of me. So naturally we're a dynamic duo. The ward thinks we're super funny I think just because we have the same name. "How you doing Elder Jensen!? Oh, I see we have a new elder here! So it's Elder Jensen and Elder..... No way...." and were like "yup were not even joking we have the same name!" And then another member walks by and says, "just ask them what their first name is" and then you hear someone talking loudly saying: "NO WAY!! TWO ELDER JARED JENSENS!?" So basically this event is probably in the Hebron newspaper and everyone in this quiet tiny place is probably like "wow did you hear that there are two Elder Jensen's in Hebron? Crazy huh. This news is almost as when the middle school girls won state softball" because that’s pretty much all they have to brag about here haha I love it. So basically the ward calls us J to the 4th power because JaredX2 and JensenX2. It's pretty exciting but something tells me the jokes are going to get old haha. Whatever it's something they'll never forget. 

So I thought that since it's a new year I don't have to be in choir anymore right!? Funny story, church is over, our people who made it had left, I finished everything I needed to do while at the church so we're getting ready to head out and then the choir director comes up to me and says: "Just because Elder Buckway is gone doesn't mean you're still not participating in choir..." So, it  looks like Elder Buckway being nice to the choir director one time has forever forced all the missionaries who ever serve in this area to be in the choir. The choir makes me laugh so hard because the only guys in it are the choir director’s dad and brother who probably just do it cause they feel bad haha and the missionaries who also feel bad. Whatever, I sing super loud and do my best. Apparently we're all supposed to sing different notes but I just do my best and sometimes it sounds OK. My dad is probably so proud that I'm gaining so much musical knowledge from this experience. 

So this week it snowed for the first time since like over a month. It was pretty wild and Elder Jensen and I were like "let's attempt service!" but then it kept snowing and whenever we tried shoveling snow it stopped working. We didn't find any new people out of it we started talking to people though and one of them instead of letting us teach her gave us 7 dollars. "No, really we're not supposed to take money it's against our rules." She comes up and shoves it in my pocket and walks away. People's time here seems to be more valuable than money I've discovered, which makes it kinda hard for us to teach them sometimes. But we're learning the tips and tricks to be able to teach people. Also I learned how to drive in the snow just a tad, kinda got wrecked and almost crashed into the zone leader’s truck. But I didn't (yet). Driving in the snow is nuts! Now I know why St. George is the Promised Land. Also it's so flat here so people are sledding on like the most pathetic hills I've ever seen haha but I guess they'll take what they can get. 

Right now we have two people who I think are looking pretty solid for baptism in February. One of them committed to live the word of wisdom (I feel like a proud father) and the other one we asked to read a page a day of the Book of Mormon, and we came back the next day and he had read 7 chapters. So there you have it. He's the coolest dude ever. We're also really trying to work hard to have daily contact with the people we're teaching, which is something that Elder Jensen has really taught me. He was trained by a legendary missionary so I'm learning a lot from him. 

Elder Jensen came out a transfer after me, so he just got done being trained. So they call this "greeniebreaking" I'm greenie breaking Elder Jensen and I just got greenie broken myself last transfer. So basically Hebron Indiana is actually on green fire right now. It's pretty super awesome if I do say so myself. 

I don't have any super funny tracting stories this week, but there was this one guy who was an old Catholic dude who was super mad and was like "You must be desperate if you're going door to door!" and I was like "yeah a little bit wanna hear a message?" Anyway I don't think he liked that too much and he said: "My church has been around for like a thousand years! How long has yours been around!?" 

"Well it was Christ's same church while he was on the earth so longer than that! But it's OK if you don't want to hear, can we just leave you with a card!" 

"I don't want your @#$% card! I'll just throw it away!" 

Basically I think I found the golden person that day and I am going to baptize him. Haha that was one of Elder Jensen's first contacts though tracting for the first time so that was kinda funny. 

The church is true. 

Well I think that's about my story for this week. Jared Jensen (both of them) bids you farewell until next week. Also we have zone conference tomorrow! It’s going to be straight fire and wizardry of the gospel. Much love and hope this week is absolutely a grand one! 

Elder Jared Jensen #1

Pics 

1. One of the members painted their fav member of 1D #myboiniall #louisisstillthebest

2. The mission sweet ride 

3. Elder Jensen my guy

ELDERJENSENX2

This week was the last week of the transfer and we got the transfer calls last night! I'll be staying in Hebron but my good man Elder Buckway has finished up his time here. He'll be going to the city! So during the transfer call they told me I'll be the new district leader here, so that MTC mailman power is coming back haha. And my new companion---- remember how I mentioned there were like 5 Elder Jensen's in this mission, and one of them is named Jared Jensen? Yeah he's definitely my new companion. I met him back when we were both in the city so now the two Jared Jensen's will be the new Hebron masters. It's going to be so funny, "Hi, I'm Elder Jensen, and this is elder Jensen and we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ." "Elder what's your first name??" "Oh my first name is Jared, and his is Jared." People are probably going to think we are a cult that names everyone Jared Jensen haha. 

So this last week of the transfer we had a lot of finding time and a lot of time to go tracting, and Elder Buckway has been here so long that he's tracted like everywhere haha. So we went to one of the farthest outskirts of our area to a little town called Schneider Indiana. They only had one tiny grocery store called Dollar General and one little restaurant owned by someone who lived in the town. It was so fun and like literally in the middle of nowhere. The people there were actually really nice and we did get one potential person down there but it would be tough to teach him cause he lives so far away so we'll see what happens there. One of the funniest things though, we were like "Oh were probably the first missionaries to ever set foot in this area!" Then we go up to the first door. And yup, it's a Jehovah’s Witness flyer haha. They are hitting up every place even little Schneider. There's actually three kingdom hall's in our area so Jehovah’s Witness must be really strong in this area haha. We've definitely ran into their flyers so many times. 

So one of our dinner appointments this week was a family of 7 kids which means it's my environment that I'm used to and they were all so fun and awesome! One of them was like "have you ever held a snake before?" I told them that I hadn't and he looks at his little sister and says in the most serious voice: "get the snake." Not going to lie I was a little afraid for my life haha so the little girl comes down stairs, and she's probably like 10 years old and she has this fat snake chillin around her neck. I honestly thought it was going to choke her and was scared for HER life. But it just chilled there. So anyways all 7 kids were like passing around this snake and like playing with it and I thought that this environment for a snake was probably more intense than the great jungles of Africa and it was so funny even the 2 year old runs up and grabs the snake and put it on his head as it slithered around his neck and he was just laughing. So they made me put it on my neck and it felt really weird but it was pretty funny haha they said his name is Pablo so same name as my favorite little Caesars manager in the world! It was so fun and now I can say that I HAVE held a snake and that it's been like my scarf for a little while. 

Also Elder Buckway cut my hair this week cause it was so long and he said he knew how to do it and so I let him give it a Go and let's just say this man absolutely knows what he's doing haha. I kinda look like I'm in the military but also you can't even notice. 

So this week was like in the 40s and 50s all week, and Elder Buckway told me that last year at this time it was like - 15 and - 10 so winter has come late this year apparently cause it currently feels like St. George winter. Or maybe we skipped it! Fingers crossed for that one. 

When I told people I was going to Chicago on my mission they said "oh you're going to become a cubs/bears/bulls fan. I think the opposite haha. This week the bears were playing in the playoffs or something like that and we were going tracting, literally every single house had the tv on with the game playing. Apparently this is the best the bears have done since a long time haha and the Chicago area including Indiana is super hyped. It was like worse that knocking on Christmas Eve haha. Everybody was like so paranoid when they answered and one guy said to us. "I really respect what you guys are doing, but you do realize this is the worst time ever right?! I mean the bears are playing right now!" So apparently Joseph Smith may have forgot something in his prophecy: "the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent,,,,, unless there’s a bears game on" haha honestly that’s what it felt like but we kept going anyway!

Oh I most definitely forgot it was New Years this week! Happy New Years! New Years on a mission just means that you have to remember to put 19 instead of 18 on everything. And my New Years resolution is to serve the Lord every day for the next year! Hopefully I can do it :) 

So this area is hard but it's the one so far that has really strengthened my testimony the most. The Book of Mormon is true! Every day I read it and then I go out and I'm like, "yup, the Book of Mormon is true." We talked to one guy who was talking about his church and the way he talked about it made it sound like a business. Jesus Christ's gospel should be open to all who are willing to live the commandments! Not just some membership or business! And that's what a lot of the churches around here seem like. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true. It is Jesus Christ's true church! We are led by a living prophet! What a great privilege it is to be a part of this great work! Love all of you and keep up being legendary! Next week I'll let you know how Elder Jared Jensen X2 is going! 

Love Elder Jared D. Jensen 

Pics 

1.the snake

2.the snake

3.good ol Schneider Indiana