Bipolar Vortex

Hello! I don't have too much of an update this week, a lot of the same old! But this week was super awesome! 

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders in Aurora. They actually cover our same area! So I stayed here and Elder Vargas who is an Elder Born in Colombia but lived most of his life in Spain came here with me! It was super awesome! We hit up the wealthy suburbs of Naperville first and then we spent most of the day in Aurora tracting Jehovah’s Witness style with one Companionship on each side of the street. Everybody there was mostly Hispanic, but the Spanish elders got a lot of work done with our help! (When I say Jehovah’s witness style I don't mean the style of literally shoving bibles into people's faces, but the kind where we hit one street with double timing it.)

Elder Vargas is my man and a Spanish wizard, probably because it's his first language. It was a really great day and we had a really great time going there! It's actually super awesome, this place, Aurora, is like a Spanish pocket and is almost like a tiny Mexico. So whenever there was an English person I would contact them and whenever they were Spanish speaking E

lder Vargas would contact them. It was the same with the other elders. It was super awesome! Taught my man how to play racquetball early in the morning and he was asking tons of questions about the ways of America haha. 

This week we also had the opportunity to teach Seminary, it was elder Dodson's first time teaching Seminary but I'd taught Seminary a few times in Hebron. It was pretty cool to do it again. The students are always tired but they have to sacrifice sleep for Seminary other than in Utah where they take Seminary as an opportunity TO sleep which is lame. People if you are in Seminary right now take advantage of the opportunity to learn the doctrines of the kingdom rather than sleep. 

OK this week was so great at first cause it was Spring style 70 degrees lots of great times and light outside and nice and warm and then on Saturday somehow it managed to be 30 degrees again and snowing and raining and sleeting and hailing all day, like it was a cold and wet mess. And it was Saturday! Saturday is the best day for tracting! So we went out anyway for like 6 hours straight and went to find the elect but the elect thought it was a little too cold to open the door that day which is funny because they were doing it when it was winter time but right when they got a little taste of the heat they were no longer having it haha. It was a cold, wet, glorious day! One of our Books of Mormon got a little wet but it still contains the message of Christ's ministry in the ancient America's and is therefore of infinite worth! 

Also some lady whose door we knocked on was Muslim and so she invited us to a mosque, so we went with her. It was pretty interesting. They are some extremely nice people, and something I've noticed is that just about everything that Christians disagree with us about (like the trinity, prophets after Jesus etc.) the Muslims agree with us about. But everything the Muslims disagree with us about, we agree with most Christians about. The theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is like right in between Islamic and average Christianity. But also it’s true and is the church that has the authority from God so that makes all the difference. 

Well we had church this Sunday and one of the returning member family's we have been meeting with has a son and his name is Roman, he's 2 years old and is very loud. When we walked into church he yelled "MISSIONAWIES" and ran to us and throughout sacrament he yelled "I WANT TO SIT BY THE MISSIONAWIES," so he sat by us haha. My man was so loud we were trying so hard to keep him quiet and then finally he ran back to his mom in the back. So I gave a talk in church this last Sunday and my man Roman ran up to the front of the congregation and stood right by me while I was giving my talk and I was trying so hard not to laugh but his mom gave him the death glare so he ran back down to sit with his mom. I'm pretty sure I've lost count how many times a kid in church has ran up to the front and their parents chase after them and pick them up and take them out haha.

That's about all my update for this week, some cool scriptures from this week:

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Mosiah 3:19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I've been learning a lot about flesh Vs. Spirit this week and love these scriptures! Let’s overcome the Natural man and let the spirit lead the way and DO what God wants us to do! The church is True!!! 

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Jensen 

Pics 

1. The Gatorade Windex prank 

2. Aurora blitz

3. My Spain boy 

4. Grilled cheesus 

5. An attempt to make muffins after seminary

The Church is Definitely True! Sorry if I sound prideful about it!

Happy Easter! This week was super awesome! Today is the first day that I've worn a short sleeve shirt in 6 months! Is winter over yet? I might jinx us and we might have another snow day haha! We had another exchange and this time went with the elders in Wheaton. Now since we get to be zone leaders we go on an exchanges like every single week! It's way fun! And also always a learning experience of course. I went to Wheaton with Elder Weinmuller who is this body builder man who is truly one of the coolest dudes on the planet. We were out and about knocking some doors and this lady drove up to us and was like, "Hey, what church are you from?" We said, "The true church." No, JK, we told her where we were from and we managed to set up a return appointment and teach her the next day and it went really well! Always super gnarly finding people on exchanges! It was a pretty great day and it seemed that Elder Dodson and his companion for the day killed it too. No better way to start off a week! 

So funny story there are these doorbell called "RING" doorbells. These things are literally like missionaries worst nightmare because they literally actually suck because they have a camera and microphone and speaker on it so it literally gives people an excuse to talk to you without actually talking to you. So whenever I see these things now in the wealthier neighborhoods I just knock, I don't ring them because they make this sound that will honestly probably give me PTSD for the rest of my life. Well, turns out the camera's still record either way. So a member at church came to us and he's like, "Did you guys see this?" Apparently his neighborhood had this group chat thing and he showed us a video of us walking to the door and knocking on it and waiting to send the contact. The subject was, "Does anybody know who these strangers are?" As missionaries when it's cold outside we definitely look like strangers because Elder Dodson and I happen to look like two 14 year olds knocking on people's doors and nobody can really tell who we are when we have all these coats or jackets on. It made us laugh because the "strangers" in the video were definitely us, and it really makes me wonder how many doors are actually filming me... because I'm pretty sure there has been several situations where I earth-bended the door right after nobody answered. So there's probably plenty of videos of missionaries or "strangers" who are putting some sort of weird hex on the house when nobody answers. Great. I promise we're Christian, not Satanists or avatars (even though it would be so cool to be the avatar!?)

So we finished the neighborhood that was literally 95% Indian this week and I must say we have really gotten a lot better at learning how to contact all these people of the Hindu faith. Like there are trigger words and questions that make them interested. Now probably like 35% of the time they will accept the Book of Mormon and be willing to learn more. Much more than the usual like 5% for close minded Christian white people. So we found a ton more new people this week from Hindu nation, however we don't know how much they will be able to progress. It should be an experience to teach them! 

So we had a pretty dope #4/20. It was pretty fire, not because of the wonderful day, but because it was a Saturday and Saturdays are game day! We met with lots of people and taught and found. There was only one lame-o who told us the Book of Mormon was an abomination and asked us if we believed Jesus was God and we told him yes. We shared Mosiah 15 with him and were like, "See, Jesus is God!" Shut the poor dude up. Good thing we didn't have to talk about how Jesus is the God of the old testament and not God the father haha. But he told us we believe in false doctrines and we threw down some Bible verses and then walked away and then he came back outside and was like, "Bros..... it's just the thing is... the Book of Mormon actually is an abomination. There are no other books and there are no prophets." We asked him if he thinks the Bible is complete. He said yes. We read some scriptures with him that literally talk about books that are missing from the Bible like 1 Chronicles 29:29 and that got him. Then he just told us we were prideful and went inside and said he would pray for our pride to go away. 

So this week I've spent a lot of time in the Bible. It actually supports the belief and theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! That's why we believe in it! Wow! The church is so true! The Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand and both testify of each other. Studying the scriptures and cross referencing scriptures has become like my obsession. Every night I get home and when the day is over I'm in the scriptures now every chance I get extra time. It's like trying to figure out this giant puzzle. I want to be able to have lots of scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon memorized so I can throw them out in contacts and lessons. It's the way to go. But also the Hindu nation doesn't believe in either of them so not so necessary on their part haha. 

I guess last of all this week was a bangin' Easter. I found a horribly hideous Easter tie that said "Happy Easter" and had a picture of the Easter bunny on it. It was definitely probably a little apostate, but there is only one day in the year I could possibly wear it! so I wore it and actually ended up taping a picture of Jesus on it because that's what Easter is really all about! so it was a grand holiday. 

This week I had multiple people tell me that I "was lost" and that "everything I believed was false doctrine" and that "I should study the Bible more." So I did. It's not false. It's true. I've had to defend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Christian church in the past (believe it or not some people think it's actually not Christian even though it says it right in the name). I don't even know if I want to call it a Christian church anymore. It's not just another apostate Christian church where everybody studies out of the same Bible but interprets it differently. The Bible says that no scripture is of private interpretation. God is going to tell us what it means, and he's going to do that through personal revelation and a prophet. Continuing revelation has always been persecuted and it always will be. Constant direction from God is hard because it means change, it means growth, it means progression. But it also means truth. I can testify that this church is true. That it is persecuted because it has been in every dispensation. There is a prophet of God on the earth today. God's mouth isn't shut. The Book of Mormon is the way for us to know that. I know that by the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things! That is a promise from a prophet of God and I believe that with all my heart. This church is TRUE! 

A homie called me prideful but in the end the faith needs to be defended. Gotta share one last dope quote before I end. 

"To say that all churches are true is to say that all paths lead to the same place. It is to say there is no agency; no power of action, no right choice. It is to say that inactivity is to be valued as activity, that ignorance is to be valued as intelligence, that good has no supremacy over evil, and that Christ is no better than the devil. To those who act offended that we would say there is but one true and living church, we might ask if these same people would, when sick, be willing to take any randomly selected combination of drugs to cure what ails them or administer the same to their children? Would they substitute sand for flour when baking bread? Arguing that as long as they were sincere, it could possibly make any difference? Would they fill their gas tank with water, arguing that it too was a true liquid and was also a creation of God and that God loved all liquids the same? We simply do not argue that all doctors are the same, that all medicines are the same, that all food is the same. No one takes offense at such announcements. How strange is it that we take offense at their spiritual counterparts? There can only be good if there is darkness. Success exists only where there is possibility to fail. Courage exists only where there is temptation to flee with the cowards. There can be truth only if there is that which is untrue. The two are not interchangeable; they do not and cannot bring fort the same fruits."

-Joseph Fielding McConkie 

The most important thing in the end we can do is to pray and ask God! 

Hope everyone's week is amazing! 

Elder Jensen 

Pics

1. Easter

2.Average Illinois doormat = still full send. 

3. The sleek tie <3

4. Lobster bisque

Noah Parting the Red Sea Was Miraculous ;)

What a wonderful Monday it is today! I hope everyone's week has been absolutely fantastic! I know mine has been! 

So actually for some reason everything like started falling through when I got transferred here so basically none of the people in our teaching pool are currently progressing or can ever meet the way the used to be able to, so actually this week consisted of a lot of cancels and finding! But that's way OK! If I've learned anything from the Book of Mormon cycle it's that a miracle happens right after the crash and burn! I'm extremely excited to see where this area goes as long as we keep working hard and do our best to help it move forward! 

So we had some pretty cool things happen this week. First of all on Tuesday it literally got to 70 degrees! Can you believe that!? I thought I was back in St. George! Even better, it was the day that everything canceled! We were able to have a fantastic nice weather day to be out and about finding the elect for the whole day! Gotta love the blessings :) something crazy though is somehow literally 4 days later it began to snow. And snow. And snow. We got like a fat snow storm today out of snowhere! (haha I like to think I'm pretty clever,,, get it! snowhere!) so basically I got a Sunburn from being out all day on Tuesday and all the sudden wake up Sunday morning and I have to pull out the extremely dope water bender fur coat again and the gloves. Illinois truly needs to make up its mind and just try to be sunny forever but I think it generally likes to avoid doing that for some odd reason. 

So because we had a lot of finding time this week, we decided to try and knock a lot of doors in Naperville because most missionaries just give up on it because they get intimidated by the wealthy houses! But Elder Dodson and I were like "Nah! Let's full send!" So we knocked and pretty sure someone managed to literally fly half of Bangladesh over here because like 90% of what we knocked in Naperville was literally all these Indian Hindu people. It was pretty wild. Actually think I might have learned so much about Hinduism this week that I might be part Indian. Praise Vishnu though because we found one Christian Indian who said we could come back and share more. So ladies and gentleman, it is possible to find people in wealthy places (I think) I looooove knocking the doors and learning all the ways to try and get in to teach them! I mean I'm still not the best at it but there are actually so many tips and tricks I'm trying to learn! (but the most important tip or trick is to firmly know what you are sharing is true and life changing). 

So we decided to get fruit snacks for some reason and got a box of like 40 and ate them all in like 2 days because they were the way good juice filled ones, and then we went on an exchange and some other elders gave us a ton more and we were like flip were going to die of fruit snack overdose. But good news these ones are super hard and stale so instead of actually eating them we decided to do a little experiment with them and put them in some water until they looked all bloated and funky and then put them in a blender and drank them. That tasted interesting. But I will probably not recommend that anyone do this. But know that blended fruit snacks is definitely possible. 

So we got to go on an exchange with the assistants this week because they go with all the zone leaders and I got to go with Elder Bush who is the father of my last companion Elder Jensen! It was a lot of fun and I got to see some actual Captain Moroni level of missionary work in action! I learned a lot from the experience but I stayed in the area and I don't know the area yet so we managed to get lost trying to find the apartment. Whatever it's a work in progress. It was a great day though of teaching and finding the elect! We also got to teach this girl that Elder Dodson and I street contacted earlier that week and elder bush was like "how has reading about prophets from the Bible helped you learn about God?" and she was like "well obviously Moses had to be from God I mean how else could he build a giant boat!?" now I'm not a scriptorian or anything but bless her heart. Haha even if she got Moses and Noah mixed up she promised to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

One other way cool thing that happened was I was able to go to my first mission leadership council. It was a great experience to be taught a little bit of extra wizardry from President Bingham the great! He seems to have mastered the technique of bringing the holy ghost into the room and the holy ghost teaches us all the good stuff and all the good revelation to help the work improve. Gotta love it. Also somehow a homeless person snuck into the church during MLC. Like I would see this stuff all the time in the city but Naperville?! Really!?

Anyway, this week was a banger and a half. It was way awesome and I'm grateful to be able to serve these great people and these great missionaries even if this places weather and taxes are a nightmare! Illinois still remains to be the Promised Land! Hope everyone's week is absolutely a fantastic legendary week of good tidings and great joy! Also Easter is coming up so remember the great even that happened on that wonderful Easter Sunday! Even though it's a possibility that I'm part Hindu now (no jk) I know the church is the true church and I'm grateful for the blessing and privilege I have to serve! The Book of Mormon is the word of God! The new testament is the word of God! The old testament.... Still figuring that one out! 

Talk to everyone later! 

Elder Jensen 

Pics

1. Good times at member meals

2. President Bingham hooking the whole zone up with those referrals from stake conference

3. My boy lost some weight! 

4. Like that mask? 

5. Pday clothes ;) 

 

  

 

Naperville Hype

Another week gone by but this time no longer in the great state of Indiana! Back to the other great state of Illinois! My new area is the Naperville 6th ward and it is super awesome! It has like 3 cities so a lot smaller than my last area, but the cities are a lot bigger! We have part of Naperville, part of a place called Aurora, and part of a place called Warrenville. I thought this was going to be a super wealthy place but it's about half and half! Naperville is pretty wealthy and it's way funny literally like all of the population are Indians (not native Americans but the Bangladesh kind) they're all like these software engineers who work in the city and they are all Hindu! So it's interesting to knock on their doors and try to have to convert them to Christianity instead of the usual trying to convert them from Christianity to the church that contains the fullness of the gospel.

The other part is extremely diverse! There are a lot of people were teaching in that area who are from Nigeria. We found one and then we get their friend and then we get their friend and then they begin to fill up our teaching pool. It's pretty awesome! Only problem is some of them have heard the restoration like 6 times because they keep giving us their friends to teach and they're not currently improving, but it's a work in progress! For general conference we watched the first part of one of the sessions with some of our Nigerian friends and so that was pretty cool.

My new companion, Elder Dodson, is SO AWESOME! I've been extremely blessed and have had some of the best companions so far! He had 2 really tough companions right before me so he's super hyped that I'm ready to knock doors with superior speeds and ability (well that's the goal) so we're having a ton of fun and working really fun. Also I was like "I like running in the morning" and he was like "awesome I love it I'm down!" so basically that's how you know it's going to be a great transfer. Also something so cool about the Naperville apartment is it has this cool clubhouse and there is a racquet ball court in it! How awesome is that! Like it is truly the coolest. So I've had to use some of the pickle ball skills that my good friend Elder Lund (couldn't have done it without you Broden ;) helped train me with and I'm going to be a pro! So sometimes for morning exercise we play racquet ball too! it's way fun.

So conference was way awesome. My favorite talk was probably by President Nelson in the Priesthood Session. We should be extremely grateful for the opportunity we have to repent daily and to have a prophet to guide us! It's truly such a privilege. Also I finished the Book of Mormon this week for the 2nd time on my mission. It's pretty interesting to find new ways to study the Book of Mormon and I look forward to reading it again in a different way. Also I'm trying to read the new testament but it's pretty boring but it's got fire scriptures in there that answer simple questions about the church so I got to read it! 

Well I don't know a whole lot about the area yet so I don't have too much to say! But this was a good week and I'm excited for another one! here we have less crazy farmer smokers than my last area, but more people complaining about taxes! It's legendary! Hope everyone has an amazing week!

Elder Jensen

Pics:

Last time at the gas station in Indiana

Napersquad

The catholic church is "apos" for apostasy

Morning run in the fog 

Almost warm enough for ice cream