One Time I Ate a Crayon

GGGGGGOOOOOOD morning everyone it is another Monday and another week has past and it has been a great one! First week of a new transfer that looks like it's going to be fantastic with Elder Jensen and Elder Jensen! Sounds like a law firm, but that's ok we just want to talk to you about religion. 

So this week first off funny tracting story we were in like the sketchy outskirts of Hebron again right where it seems like your average axe murderer would live and we knocked on someone's door (they actually had like a nice house in the middle of the woods) and so a lady answered and she was getting ready to deny us and say she was catholic, ya know the usual, and then her husband comes behind her in the doorway and says "are those the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the crack hookups!?" and she was like "sorry he does this every time" and I yelled to him "yeah sorry to bother, we're just some representatives from the Jehovah’s Witness church here to sell you some crack."

The dude burst out laughing and told us we were funny and went back inside. So then we told the wife we were kidding told her who we really were and she was like oh I'm catholic I'm good and then the door opened again and it looked like her husband threw a cigar out and she was like "Jeff! Ugh. I know what he's doing -- not again." Anyway this thing ended up being a firecracker and it exploded and it was so loud and Elder Jensen and I looked at each other like "who are these people!" Then she told us she wasn't interested haha and that was the end of the contact. So that was interesting and you find some interesting people in the middle of nowhere places. 

Well this week church started at 12:00 because there was a stake priesthood meeting that we didn't have to go to and so Elder Jensen and I went to a church called Bethel early in the morning before ours. It's like this big rock band church haha I went there with one of our investigators once but Elder Jensen hadn't experienced it and so now he did. It just builds my testimony every time I go to a different church! Worldly churches say eat drink and be merry and sign up for baptism this Tuesday if you want and everyone claps their hands and says “Praise God, all is well, hallelujah.” It is an experience and I would invite everyone to check out another church, it can be a testimony builder if you let it. 

So we've been teaching a girl named Catelynn who has literally read all of PMG on gospel library so she knows all the lessons and she's like the most solid person ever. She should be getting baptized soon and we're way pumped for her. She's so awesome and I don't think I've ever met someone who has understood the gospel and picks it up as well as she does! It’s been a real privilege being able to teach her! 

Oh this week also our church choir performed and I thought everyone was laughing at me in the audience because I was singing really loud but they just said I looked like it was the funnest thing ever. It was pretty fun. Don't tell my dad but I actually enjoy being in the ward choir at the church but partially because I don't really know what I'm doing. So now we get to sing in the adult session of stake conference because I'm not sure but yeah so one more performance in two weeks wish Jensen twins luck. 

We taught Seminary again this morning which was pretty fun. We gotta wake up early but you know it's worth it! 

We had a crazy windy day yesterday and it makes a whistling sound in our apartment and it's so loud so that was pretty funny

Oh and I got sick this last week which was kinda lame I probably survived off of Emergen-c but made it through thank you modern medicine. 

Oh quick spiritual moment reading in Helaman this week and at the end of Matthew and if you want to know what a true prophet is read Helaman 13:25-28. And in Matthew love the Bible love the scriptures and I am grateful for my Savior! 

I think that's about this week in a nutshell! Love you everyone and keep enjoying life because there is so much to enjoy! 

Elder Jensen 

Pics:

1: I love Elder Jensen (I'm not talking about myself in the 3rd person) 

2. A great and abominable church

3. Us teaching the Neeley kids! love those kids! 

4. Love Elder Jensen pt. 2

5. Us and the Neeley family 

6 Months and a Baptism!

Gooooood morning and what a blessed Monday this day is! I'm sitting inside of a missionary apartment right now while the snow is falling and stressing me out and what a lovely surprise to hear that it's also snowing in St. George! I just remember every time it would snow there for even like 5 minutes and it wouldn't stick everyone would freak out and put stuff on their social media like "oh my goodness what is this precipitation I have not seen!"

In Indiana snow comes, like a lot of it, and then it's gone within like 2 days! The weather here never seems to make up its mind! One day it's snowing, one day there is frozen ice everywhere, one day there's just a ton of puddles and water everywhere! We also got some more ice rain this week which driving on it was super sketch. It was actually really funny, we had pulled over because I was doing a district call thingy and then we were just watching this guy walk out of his house with two cups in each hand and then he slipped and biffed it and fell. Whatever was in the cups spilled all over him and he was so mad and was just sitting on the ground and threw the cups angrily. Elder Jensen and I were in the car just dying. The person on the other end of the phone call was probably confused why we were laughing so hard haha. 

This week we had one of the priests in our ward ask if he could come knock doors with us! I was pretty surprised cause if I was his age I'd rather go be doing something like play super smash bros or jail tag with all the neighbor kids, but no this kid wanted the mission experience! So I told him he could come with us for a day! He came with us knocking for like an hour, he came to some lessons with us, it was pretty awesome! He’s definitely going to be a much better missionary than me haha. I was extremely grateful that no one who answered the door because that day was straight up insane. Good thing we went into a not crazy people area. One guy let us into his house and we got to teach like half of the restoration so I was glad he was able to have a little bit of that experience. 

Tracting story for this week: well maybe I broke one of the 10 commandments but it was to fulfill my missionary purpose. We went knocking in the far outskirts of Hebron, Hebron is already a tiny little place so we don't usually go finding there, usually we go in Crown Point cause it's a big place. But we went in this tiny little area far away in Hebron and it was like way weird.  Like it looked like we were in the mountains but in reality we're in like the flattest place ever. These houses all looked like cabins or abandoned apartments in the middle of nowhere. So we knocked on one of them and this guy named Tommy came out and he definitely only had like half of his teeth and kinda reminded me of a pirate. So he came out we told him we were missionaries and he came outside and asked us what we want to know about God?

So I was thinking, "maybe the teachers are gonna get a teachin!" So anyways Tommy started talking about how he thought many people in the world thought Donald trump was a God, and how he thought Donald trump was the devil. Instantly I was like "aw man here we go with the politics." This dude straight up started talking for like 10 minutes! Outside in the cold! I was going to lose my mind so I pretended to get a call and walked away and said "yes president? Oh no! One of the missionaries are in the hospital!? It’s an emergency!? We’ll be right on our way!" So yes. I lied. But only to fulfill the purpose and get away from nut jobs so we can find the elect! So we got outta that one and continued down our path. I thought it was a pretty clever get away but Elder Jensen disapproves the lying. But he agreed that he wanted out haha.

This week we had a baptism for Alijah Eversole! Alijah is a stud and has been probably my most favorite person to teach my whole mission. He's nine years old and is extremely intelligent! He wanted to be baptized so bad but we've had to push it back a bunch but the day finally came! We were able to teach him and invent cool kid lessons for the discussions and he's always super engaged. One of the lessons is a juggling lesson and so Alijah ever since that lesson has been trying to teach himself how to juggle and always asks me to juggle with him when we come over. So on his baptism day I gave him my juggling balls as a gift and he was super pumped! He's super awesome and Elder Jensen and I have grown to love him and his family quite a bit. 

That's about it for my week! Last night we got transfer calls and I was super stressed that I'd be leaving the promised land but it looks like Elder Jensen and I will be staying together for another 6 weeks! I'm super happy! I love it here and I love the ward and I love my companion, he's the man! We always love quoting regular show and laughing super hard haha. So for sure the next 6 weeks will continue to be filled with Indiana adventures!

P. S. We walked past Frank the Forgetful this week and said hello and he absolutely didn't even remember our existence! The church is true! 

-Elder Jared D. Jensen 

Pics 

1. Alijah the man! 

2. '' 

3. Me myself and I ;) (me and Elder Jensen cause we have the same name get it?) 

4. My legendary district

5. The swig cookies of truth

6. Me attempting to earthbend on ice

  

 

Forgetful Frank

This week was great! We had some ups and downs as usual! first of all I'm in Indiana and I came across a street sign that was Pawnee and I'm in Indiana now this is a huge deal because that means I was by the place where parks and rec literally takes place and it is real except it's only a street long not a city but still it does exist! Northwest Indiana is the Promised Land! 

It’s been another busy week with lots of lessons and a little bit of tracting! We decided, "Hey maybe we should study in the public library because it's right next to where we live and we could get more publicity that way and have some contacts where we're not knocking on people's doors!" so we did that a few times now and there’s this guy there named Frank every single day. The first day he was sitting there and he would just randomly get up and walk around and then sit down. So I was like yeah this guy is nuts guess I should contact him! So I did and he was something else! He definitely told me the same stories 4 times in a row about how his sister is a nun in St. Louis Missouri and how he worked on trump tower. Definitely has some sort of forgetfulness thing. So now whenever we go there he's just chilling there and it's like we meet him again for the first time! You know that movie 50 first dates? Yeah this is like 50 first restoration lessons featuring frank. Haha we taught him the Restoration the first time and he comes from a catholic background and he had some really great insight. 

Me: "from Joseph's Smith experience we learn that God the father and his son Jesus Christ--" 

Frank: "--ARE THE SAME!" 

Me:..... "well, kinda..." 

.... And we know that on the earth today, lots of churches have truths, but there is one restored church that has all of the restored truths---

---"THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, I KNOW MY SISTER IS A NUN THERE IN ST. LOUIS, I WENT OUT WEST TO KANSAS BEFORE, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN OUT WEST?" 

.... "well yes frank I'm from Utah that's more west than Kansas.." 

So basically we found the golden new person to teach. 

But for reals he doesn't remember anything so we go back and we sometimes practice teaching him for companionship study haha! it's probably better practice than teaching my water bottle with Austin's face on it. The first time we taught him he wouldn't accept the Book of Mormon because "he already had plenty of catholic books" so the next day before we taught him the Restoration we said "hey want a free book?" and he was like "sure! thank you young men! that's really kind of you! I'll read this tonight!" 

So 50 first restoration lessons with Frank. It's been pretty exciting and I've heard his life story like 5 times already haha. 

This week started out as a delight and now it's snowing again. So you could say the residents of Indiana" did curse God and wish to die" - Mormon 2:14

Nah that's not true I just thought that was funny. OK so funny story I finished typing this whole email up and then half of it deleted and I really don't want to retype it all cause I don't even remember what I said so sorry about that. But it's been a great week and we've had successes, we've also had some not successes, but missionary work is that and I love it!

Elder Jensen is the man (not me, my comp) and Love you all sorry I cut it short but it's like rewriting a book! 

Have a great week! 

Love Elder Jared Daniel Jensen and Elder Jared Brice Jensen 

Letter to the Young Men

Elder Jensen was asked to write a few words to the Young Men in our ward that could be shared with them on a recent camp-out. I thought it would be a nice addition to his missionary blog! 

How the mission has changed my life:

I've only been out on my mission for a little under 6 months but it has indeed been a huge impact on my life. The reason I went on a mission was because I knew it would be good for me in the future and it would be a great social experience and a great way for me to learn how to use my talents. It's kind of selfish but that's really the reason I came out. But now I've seen a change in the way I look at things. On a mission you devote all your time to helping others come unto Christ. What a great privilege it is to be doing so!

You start to notice blessings and things that you're extremely grateful for that you used to just take advantage of. You meet so many different people who have been raised completely different than what all of you see in your little Santa Clara Utah bubble. And you ask them to change their lives for their Savior. Many of them can't. But there are those out there who you will help do so, and it is the most rewarding way that you could possibly spend this time of your life.

On my mission I've gained a much more solid testimony of the gospel, and especially the Book of Mormon. It testifies that Jesus Christ is our savior and if it's true, that means Joseph Smith really was a prophet. And I know that it is true. Go on a mission. It's hard, but it's worth it. I'm never sad. Never. And I'm working hard and facing rejection all the time. But I'm way happier than I've ever been.

I know that a mission has changed my life and it can change all of yours too. So think on serving one and start preparing now by putting others first and counting your blessings and really trying to understand and ponder on how the gospel has blessed your life. I know sometimes all we care about as priests is how many girls we can kiss in a year but I promise you guys will be grateful if you put in a little time to prepare for your mission. You guys are the future and you're awesome! Your leaders are awesome and your parents are awesome! So follow their advice and you can't go wrong! 

Elder Jensen